Rapid Technologies, part of Richmark Holdings, announced today that Imaging Data Solutions (IDS) has selected and deployed Riverbed's Steelhead appliances to improve application performance, enable collaboration and allow replication and transfer of large design and database files over wide area networks (WANs).
IDS selected Riverbed's Steelhead appliances for their ability to deliver optimised performance across South Africa for a broad range of applications important to its businesses.
Imaging Data Solutions, part of the Naspers Group, provides a digital print on-demand production service as well as a comprehensive range of sophisticated products and services as part of an outsourcing contract.
IDS only uses the latest digital technology and support with digital print on demand and networking. Its head office is situated in Cape Town with three production sites in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.
"We have certainly noticed a vast improvement in the speed of files that are sent to us from our various design studios," said Leslie Brown, Sales & Marketing Director for IDS. "It allows us to keep abreast of the latest technology that is available, hence the partnership with Riverbed."
IDS's client base consists of publishers, education sectors, private hospitals, financial institution, government departments, design houses, accountancies and law firms (mostly blue chip).
"We believe the relationship we have with Rapid Technologies gives us an edge in this ever-changing market," continues Brown.
The print applications generate enormous files that are shared across the WAN between distributed teams. Prior to installing the Steelhead appliances, download of large assemblies over the WAN typically required a courier company to allow the teams to collaborate.
With the Riverbed Steelheads installed at each office files can be as large as 500Mb and this can be sent over the WAN, thus allowing IDS staff to share files in real-time in all three cities. IDS was also able to reduce file transfer times for very large files generated required for printing with a significant improvement in performance-enabling offices to enjoy real-time LAN-like experience across the WAN.
"It's also not only been our Print File Transfers between branches (and being able to centralise our Document Library), but also the total vast improvement in reduced data and time with smaller items like our Service Pack and Patch roll-outs to each and every PC throughout the company. This contributed to a snow-ball affect of increasing WAN performance on a day-to-day basis," says Jerry Ellis, IT Manager for IDS.
"The transfer of files is managed from client to server, therefore only the requested updated files are sent. This ensures the company's version controls are not affected," explains Gary Coetzee, Managing Director of Rapid Technologies. "The Riverbed Steelheads also have the capability to act as a proxy file server, eliminating the requirement for servers at remote branches."
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