Environmental Resources Management

Solution: Riverbed SteelHead Mobile

Today, all ERM employees in a region—in satellite offices, at home, or in the field—can quickly open and save files on a centralized file server. The first phase of the solution, in 2017, was accelerating office-to-office WAN performance by deploying Riverbed SteelHead devices in each office. Immediately, consultants in satellite offices could access files in the main office as if they were local. “Eliminating the need for tape backup in satellite offices reduced individual server costs per office from $10,000 to $3,000,” says Trueman.

The abrupt shift to work-from-home during the COVID-19 pandemic triggered phase two: accelerating last-mile WAN performance to consultants’ homes. Extending the value of the earlier SteelHead investment, ERM installed Riverbed SteelHead Mobile on employee laptops. “Of the three WAN acceleration solutions we tested, Riverbed delivered the best performance, and it didn’t require any changes to our network,” Trueman says. “When I tested SteelHead Mobile from home—I have 10Mbps down and 750Kbps up—I was amazed, blown away. Suddenly I could open a large file from home as fast as I could in the office.” File share traffic (CIFS) shrank by 50%-60%.

ERM started with 500 SteelHead Mobile licenses, soon tripling the count to 1,500 to meet demand. “Once employees experienced the difference with Riverbed SteelHead Mobile, they didn’t want to work without it,” says Trueman.

Benefits: Centralized data, quickly accessible from anywhere

A 15MB Excel file or 30MB PowerPoint file that previously took minutes to open without Riverbed SteelHead Mobile now opens in a few seconds. Company-wide, the time savings are massive. If half of ERM’s 5,500 employees open three large files a day and save just one minute each time, ERM gains 137 hours of work time daily, the equivalent of an extra 17 employees year-round.

More efficient collaboration and a mobilized workforce

Now that employees can quickly open and save files on the file server, they’re less tempted to download files to their laptops. “I can’t overstate the value of Riverbed for collaboration among people in different locations,” Trueman says. “By enabling team members to work on a regional file server instead of downloading files to their laptops, we’ve created a single source of truth.”

ERM experienced no downtime in the transition to work from home during the pandemic, and no drop in productivity. “With Riverbed SteelHead Mobile, we’re working as efficiently from home as we did in the office,” says Trueman. “Our clients are impressed.” So is ERM’s executive team, which recognized the IT team for enabling a smooth transition to work from home. “If we in IT increase the time available for client work, we’re heroes,” notes James Adamson, head of IT procurement for ERM. When the pandemic lockdown eases and consultants once again travel to client sites, SteelHead Mobile will help them remain productive from the field.

Simple IT

Riverbed SteelHead Mobile added almost no IT overhead. “We don’t have to keep an eye on SteelHead Mobile—it just runs,” Trueman says.