Expand Networks, www.expand.com, the leader in optimising WANs for branch office consolidation and virtualisation, today announced that Matexi Group, a construction and property development company, has implemented Expand's WAN optimisation technology to support a server consolidation initiative and guarantee a superior end-user experience, by bringing users into virtual proximity of application and data centre services.
In order to achieve IT efficiency and reduce network complexity, Matexi embarked on a project to centralise servers from its numerous remote offices across Belgium. To maintain accurate updates and rapid access to the company's Microsoft NAVision Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system across the WAN via Citrix, Matexi evaluated WAN optimisation technology from Expand Networks, Bluecoat, Packeteer and Riverbed and selected Expand Networks for its ability to optimise the WAN and accelerate all applications.
“As we migrated to a centralised environment through a server consolidation initiative, it was imperative that our staff continued to have a positive user experience when accessing the ERP application over the WAN,” said Mirko Van Colen, ICT Manager, Matexi Group. “Employees routinely need to upload digital images from our construction sites of up to 100MB and we could not afford for that process to be slowed down and affect the performance of the ERP system and other WAN applications. WAN acceleration technology was required and Expand Networks was the clear leader, with so many integrated features addressing all our network requirements.”
Quickly deployed, the Expand Networks technology compresses and accelerates applications over the WAN, including Citrix and Microsoft NAVision resulting in a superior end-user experience and has guaranteed the success of the server consolidation project for Matexi Group.
“Expand Networks has an array of superb features such as QOS, WAFS and remote print services, in addition to compression and acceleration techniques that has optimised the WAN and enabled true server consolidation,” continued Van Colen. “With acceleration of up to 1 500%, our employees have excellent access to all applications, including the mission-critical ERP system, and data centre services such as the Microsoft SQL server, guaranteeing the end-user experience and also productivity.”
The success of implementing Expand Networks to optimise the WAN and accelerate all applications, Matexi has been able to halve the size of the WAN links from its remote offices, expediting the ROI on the infrastructure and reducing the TCO. Van Colen concluded: “It's every IT manager's dream to consolidate and centralise all data. With Expand Networks able to provide an SLA for the WAN link, that dream can now be a possibility.”
“Against the backdrop of the economy and shrinking budgets, IT managers are under increasing pressure to deliver cost savings and value for money while maintaining network and user performance,” said Mike Betz, VP Sales EMEA, Expand Networks. “A single investment in Expand Networks' integrated WAN optimisation technology supports multiple projects, stretching IT budgets further providing the maximum ROI.”
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