Riverbed Application Performance Platform Keeps Critical Applications Running for Lathrop & Gage Attorneys

Using Riverbed SteelHead and SteelCentral the firm has reduced disruptive failovers to five seconds or less and increased network capacity up to 300%

Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ:RVBD), the leader in application performance infrastructure, today announced that Lathrop & Gage is using Riverbed® Application Performance Platform solutions to improve the resiliency of its IT infrastructure, which its attorneys depend on for their phones, video conferences and legal applications. By accessing Riverbed® SteelHead™ key features of path selection, WAN optimization and QoS functionality, combined with Riverbed® SteelCentral™ network performance management (NPM) solutions, the firm has reduced highly disruptive and costly 90-second failovers to five seconds or less, increased network capacity by 200% to 300% at no additional capital expense, and reduced IT troubleshooting to minutes.

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Lathrop & Gage ranks among the top 200 largest law firms in the United States. Headquartered in Kansas City, Lathrop & Gage has 320 attorneys practicing in 10 offices throughout the United States. Two separate 10-gigabyte MPLS networks link headquarters and regional offices to each other and to the firm’s two data centers. Each data center has its own Internet connection as well. All of the firm’s critical applications – Microsoft Office, Exchange, Outlook, legal document management system (Autonomy iManage), VoIP and video conferencing (Cisco Unified Communications Manager) – are centralized in data centers and delivered over the MPLS network.

Until recently, one MPLS network was active while the other was passive, used only when a failover from the active network occurred. This configuration was not cost effective and caused problems for the attorneys. For example, when the active network went down and traffic switched over to the passive network, the failover process could take up to 90 seconds. “Ninety seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but it isn’t really 90 seconds,” explained Lathrop & Gage’s IT infrastructure manager, Tim Soto. “Your phone has to reset so you drop the call you’re on. If someone tries to call you back they’re not going to be able to reach you. If you’re using Outlook, your session disconnects. Ninety seconds can cause a fatal application error. Ninety seconds is a very disruptive disconnect.”

To ensure the network’s reliability and the availability of the attorney’s phones, conferencing system and software applications, Lathrop & Gage relies on a range of Riverbed solutions. Its SteelHead appliances provide WAN optimization that ensures LAN-like performance of applications over the network; quality of service (QoS) functionality, which allows the IT team to prioritize voice traffic over recreational traffic; and path selection, for directing business-critical traffic over an MPLS network and recreational traffic over the Internet – turning the active-passive network configuration into an active-active one.

Lathrop & Gage’s IT team evaluated Riverbed path selection against other vendors’ solutions and found that others would require extensive changes to network architecture. “With SteelHead appliances already in place it was easy to drop path selection into the existing setup,” said David Alberico, Lathrop & Gage’s network manager. “It works perfectly and it’s real easy to build out.”

The firm’s SteelCentral NPM solutions include SteelCentral Flow Gateway, which collects, aggregates, and compresses flow data, SteelCentral NetShark for high-performance packet capture, and a SteelCentral NetProfiler appliance, which combines flow, packet capture and SteelHead performance data to enable proactive network monitoring, analysis, and reporting. This solution allows the IT team to troubleshoot network issues in minutes.

With both MPLS circuits now active, usable bandwidth increased by 200% to 300% before WAN optimization and without any additional capital expense. Path selection also significantly decreases failover speeds, which are down to a non-disruptive five seconds or less. “What’s really beautiful is the difference between something being disruptive, and everybody stops working while you failover, versus now when there's a failure, employees don't really know that there’s a problem and we fix it in the background,” said Soto. SteelHead QoS functionality ensures that even if an office reaches its bandwidth limits, it won’t be a problem because usage is prioritized according to application.

The Riverbed Application Performance Platform™

Riverbed SteelHead and SteelCentral are part of the Riverbed Application Performance Platform™, a complete platform that gives CIOs the visibility to deliver, control, and optimize all IT resources across the hybrid enterprise. Riverbed SteelHead is the industry’s #1 optimization solution for accelerated delivery of all applications across the hybrid enterprise. SteelHead provides increased visibility into application performance and end-user experience and the ability to ensure business performance SLAs through an application-aware approach to hybrid networking based on centralized business intent-based policies. The Riverbed SteelCentral product family is a performance management and control suite that combines user experience, application, and network performance management to provide the visibility needed to diagnose and cure issues before end users notice a problem, call the help desk, or jump to another web site out of frustration.

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About Riverbed

Riverbed, at more than $1 billion in annual revenue, is the leader in Application Performance Infrastructure, delivering the most complete platform for the hybrid enterprise to ensure applications perform as expected, data is always available when needed, and performance issues can be proactively detected and resolved before impacting business performance. Riverbed enables hybrid enterprises to transform application performance into a competitive advantage by maximizing employee productivity and leveraging IT to create new forms of operational agility. Riverbed’s 26,000+ customers include 97% of the Fortune 100 and 98% of the Forbes Global 100. Learn more at www.riverbed.com.

Riverbed and any Riverbed product or service name or logo used herein are trademarks of Riverbed Technology, Inc. All other trademarks used herein belong to their respective owners.

About Lathrop & Gage:

Lathrop & Gage has 320 attorneys nationwide serving clients in the areas of litigation, intellectual property and business. Chambers USA ranks Lathrop & Gage’s corporate, environmental, media and entertainment, labor and employment, litigation and real estate practices among the best in their regions. For more information, visit www.lathropgage.com.

MEDIA CONTACTRiverbed TechnologyLori Bertelli, 415-486-7909lori.bertelli@riverbed.comorINVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACTRiverbed TechnologyShanye Hudson, 415-527-4709shanye.hudson@riverbed.com

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