Riverbed and EqualLogic Enable Remote Access to Data Centers at LAN-Like Speeds

Business Wire, June 26, 2007

Customer LifeLink Sees Benefits of Faster Data Replication, LAN-like Application Performance over the WAN and Lower Infrastructure Costs

SAN FRANCISCO & NASHUA, N.H. -- Riverbed Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: RVBD), the performance leader in wide-area data services (WDS), and EqualLogic, a leading provider of enterprise-class iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions, today announced that a growing number of businesses are using EqualLogic and Riverbed solutions together. The combined Riverbed[R] and EqualLogic offerings provide customers with faster data replication between remote sites, while reducing the bandwidth needed to replicate data.

"EqualLogic has been a great partner, as seen by our growing list of common customers. It aligns Riverbed with an iSCSI SAN leader, and gives us entree into the promising SAN market," said Venugopal Pai, senior director, alliances for Riverbed. "Any time you need to replicate data from remote sites to a central location, you have to use a WAN connection, and without our Steelhead[R] appliances, transmission over the WAN can be expensive and slow. Today, joint customers of Riverbed and EqualLogic are able transmit data at near LAN-like speeds."

EqualLogic includes data replication as part of its all-inclusive software features in its PS Series storage arrays, so customers can easily turn on disaster recovery and remote backup capabilities using WAN links. Since the cost of WAN bandwidth can be high, customers can use Riverbed's Steelhead appliances at the remote locations and the central site to accelerate data transfers, improving storage replication time by up to 98 percent. This improvement makes replication over the WAN more cost effective--and time effective--so organizations can centralize their IT services and affordably enable disaster recovery.

"Many organizations are looking to improve their IT operations and save money by consolidating storage and servers, but the expense of WAN links can be a sticking point," said Kevin Wittmer, director of product marketing at EqualLogic. "The combined offering of our all-inclusive iSCSI SANs and the Steelhead appliances reduces replication time and makes enabling replication for disaster recovery feasible for a much broader set of businesses and remote offices."

LAN-Like Speed WAN Connections to Data Center Essential to LifeLink's Mission

Speed is literally a life and death matter for LifeLink Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to recovering high-quality donated organs and tissues for transplant therapy with headquarters in Tampa, Florida, and offices at additional sites in Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and Texas. When LifeLink developed a strategic plan for disaster recovery and hurricane planning, its first step was to virtualize its data center using VMware and EqualLogic PS Series iSCSI SANs in three offices. The second step was to consolidate storage and additional IT infrastructure from remote sites into its Atlanta office. Consolidation, however, would make it difficult to provide the type of LAN performance that users expect. Because organ and tissue donations are time sensitive, and because LifeLink needs to access information in its database to share with organ procurement groups and transplant hospitals, real-time access and response time are critical. The organization was concerned about the cost of WAN links. After researching its options and speaking to Riverbed, LifeLink decided to test the Steelhead appliances.

"Our benchmark testing quickly showed that the Steelhead appliances gave us the performance we need," said John Rhon, vice president of information systems at LifeLink. "We now have about 150 employees in three of our satellite offices working at LAN-like speed, just as if we had not centralized our EqualLogic storage--and we haven't had to add WAN bandwidth. In just 60 days, Riverbed met and exceeded our expectations, and now the company is helping us make a smooth upgrade to its new RiOS[TM] 4.0 operating system."

Riverbed's solution also provides the rapid ROI that was essential to getting the purchase approved by LifeLink's president and board of directors. Because Steelhead appliances let LifeLink centralize its EqualLogic iSCSI SAN, the non-profit was able to slash software licensing costs and eliminate redundant equipment. For example, LifeLink now has one centrally located Microsoft Exchange server, rather than separate servers at each office.

About Riverbed's Steelhead Appliances

Riverbed's WDS solutions enable organizations with more than one office to overcome a host of severe problems, including poor application performance and insufficient bandwidth at remote sites. By speeding the performance of applications between distributed sites by five to 50 times and in some cases up to 100 times between enterprise datacenters and remote offices, Riverbed's award-winning Steelhead WDS appliances enable companies to consolidate IT, improve backup and replication processes to ensure data integrity, and improve staff productivity and collaboration. Steelhead appliances have been deployed in organizations ranging from the world's largest corporations with offices around the globe to small companies with a couple of sites that are just miles apart. To learn more, view Riverbed's demo: www.riverbed.com/pr/jack.>