Johannesburg, 02 Sep 2010
Riverbed technology implemented by IT systems, software, hardware and consulting services provider, Datacentrix, has revolutionised the network, data back-up and replication at national roofing and chimney systems supplier, Monier Roofing.
“With nine manufacturing plants and three depots throughout South Africa, we were faced with data transfer and back-up speed problems,” says Danie Kruger, IT manager at Monier Roofing. “The first solution provider we approached wanted a hefty management fee on top of the cost of the Riverbed solution, effectively doubling the price. So we turned to Datacentrix, who handled our needs professionally and competently without the so-called management fee.”
He adds that Monier Roofing has made a significant investment in its national network and the company is delighted with the results of the Riverbed Steelhead implementation. “It is literally paying for itself in just five months. We have not looked back since the first tests were conducted.”
Running a Sage 9500 ERP system on a Microsoft SQL database and fat client, the large branch sites were being backed up using tapes, which led to a storage problem. Data transfer of 80GB a night on a 512kb line was also extremely tedious.
With the Riverbed solution by Datacentrix in place, there was immediate improvement in bandwidth at the Monier Roofing head office in Constantia Kloof, Roodepoort, at the data centre and the remote branch sites, leading to significant optimisation of the Sage applications and back-ups.
“The outcome is that we are on average getting almost six times the capacity across all of the network traffic and full payback on the investment in Riverbed, inclusive of Datacentrix's implementation cost, in less than six months,” says Kruger.
“The user experience is massive. Transactions that used to take three seconds now take half a second. Our entire operation has been significantly speeded up. It is easy to over-invest in IT solutions, but Datacentrix ensured we got full value for our investment by providing the perfect fit in terms of the Riverbed equipment required.”
Other factors that have impressed Kruger include the obvious experience of the implementers, their knowledge of the technology and their after-implementation service. “I don't think any organisation could have handled this better. It really was a case of 'plug it in and run'. We were knocked out when we saw the advantages. We'd be having serious problems without this solution.”
Kruger intends delivering a report on the Riverbed implementation at the Monier international company IT conference, in Germany, later this year. “I will happily recommend this Riverbed technology to other companies in the Monier Group. The bandwidth is cheaper overseas but latency remains a problem that they will need to address with this type of solution.”
Datacentrix is a platinum partner of Riverbed and has the largest Riverbed customer base in South Africa. Richard Tsalavoutas, Riverbed sales specialist at Datacentrix, has confidence that the solution implemented at Monier Roofing will also pay dividends by delaying the need to upgrade hardware.
“I can't see Monier Roofing having to upgrade hardware for at least another 18 months, probably longer,” says Tsalavoutas. “From a capacity point of view the Riverbed equipment will outlast Monier Roofing's servers. It delivers what is needed, so it is no wonder that Riverbed's popularity as the ultimate optimisation technology continues to climb worldwide.”
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