Riverbed Application Performance Platform Solutions Power California Environmental Firm Dudek’s Expansion as Highly Efficient Hybrid Enterprise

SOURCE: Riverbed Technologies

Headquartered in Encinitas, Dudek is a California-focused environmental firm with more than 300 planners, scientists, civil engineers, contractors, and support staff located in 13 sites across the state. The firm has provided its clients with environmental, permitting, planning, engineering, construction and operational services since 1980. When Abe Esguerra, IT Director at Dudek, came to the firm in 2002 there were just five offices, 120 employees, and no wide area network (WAN). In those days, inter-office collaboration consisted of sharing large files via FTP, MAPI and mailing CDs.

This approach was cumbersome and led to serious problems with version control, so Esguerra set up a multiprotocol layer switching (MPLS) network and moved toward centralizing applications and data. But due to distances between offices, bandwidth limitations, and the large size of the firm’s project files, this didn’t completely solve the problem. Employees experienced delays accessing business critical-applications, SQL databases and file-shares. They were also unable to provide clients with onsite, real-time displays of project files.

“I was looking for ways to speed up the movement of information from various points,” recalled Esguerra. He wanted a solution that would provide great application performance over the network, allow for fast transfer of large files, enable effective collaboration between the various offices, and deliver these same advantages to employees working at remote jobsites. He also needed a solution that could scale, because Dudek was growing.

When Esguerra learned about Riverbed SteelHead he decided to test it out. “The POC was so impressive that we immediately made the investment. We haven’t looked back since,” he said. Dudek is seeing up to 80% reduction in data traffic across the WAN, keeping bandwidth increases to a minimum for a significant cost saving. Esguerra calculated that the original SteelHead deployment “paid for itself two-fold in less than a year.”

Dudek’s current Riverbed deployment reflects the firm’s growth and how Esguerra has adapted the IT environment to support the firm’s business today. SteelHead can be found in the firm’s data centers in Encinitas and Irvine along with 13 SteelHead virtual appliances (running on VMware ESX on HP ProLiant servers) and a SteelFusion Edge appliance in a branch office. Dudek is also using approximately 50 licenses of SteelHead Mobile to ensure clients can see real-time project files while onsite and away from the office.

Aspects of the Riverbed Application Performance Platform have streamlined inter-office collaboration by providing fast access to large volumes of data over the network, and it delivers great application performance for all Dudek employees, whether they’re working in an office or remotely. “The efficiencies and flexibility our employees have gained from this technology translate to real dollars. The SteelHead toolkit has definitely contributed to the firm’s productivity and profitability,” said Esguerra.

Esguerra has taken advantage of new Riverbed functionality to meet Dudek’s needs as the firm evolves and grows. For example, when Dudek was in the process of acquiring a company and concerns arose over centralizing its data in Encinitas, Esguerra found a solution with SteelFusion, the first solution purpose-built for the branch. The acquired company’s fear was that the data, which included large maps and aerial imagery, wouldn’t be as readily accessible as if it were stored locally. “A lot of that was reference information that they might need to access right away, when they couldn’t afford a delay,” Esguerra explained. “Not only did SteelFusion address their need and reassure them they would have their data locally available, it also met our need of centrally backing up their project work.”

Most importantly, Riverbed Application Performance Platform solutions give Dudek the ability to be agile, expand into new markets and attract the best talent, regardless of location. “The use of Riverbed technologies has helped us tap into new markets and new geographic areas. The consolidation and availability of data from virtually anywhere enables our practice builders to more efficiently pursue new opportunities and resources,” said Esguerra. The use of Riverbed technologies greatly enhanced the firm’s ability to establish and grow new practice areas such as Compliance and Cultural Resources.