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Needham Bank Cashes In On Remote Connectivity: Page 2 of 2

Since implementing DesktopDirect, Gordon says the number of employees that can access the network remotely, as needed, has more than tripled, from seven to 25. "That's because of the  ease-of-use and that the access is all under my control," he says.

Needham Bank is also using an Array Networks' application delivery controller designed to accelerate applications and web-based servers by integrating multiple traffic management, load balancing, server offloading, acceleration and security functions in a single system. Gordon is leveraging the controller to publish Microsoft's SharePoint and Help Desk, as well as various other applications in HTML on Web servers for employees who don't need full-fledged access.

In mid-July, Array Networks announced a new version of the operating system for its APV series of application delivery controllers: the ArrayOS 8.1. The new operating system leverages Array Network's SpeedCore architecture, which was released for testing last year and has since been made more scalable. For example, the new operating system fully leverages 64-bit processing and multi-core technology that the company says improves performance, packet handling and memory capacity. The new version also delivers multi-fold improvements in server offload and acceleration capabilities using new and improved functionality related to server load balancing, caching, compression, system level monitoring, process/module level resilience, application flow monitoring and field troubleshooting.

With the 64-bit architecture, the APV has four times the memory and much more CPU power, according to Array Networks. The new compression mechanisms and much more CPU power, according to Array Networks. The new compression mechanisms have kept the loads low on Needham Bank's servers. "I don't want to put any extra load on my servers by publishing natively," Gordon says. "Now I can publish through a proxy device and get the speed I need. The compression was paramount as well."