Riverbed removes the need to add additional T1s, says Goturi, explaining that the 5010s won out largely by offering faster application performance than Packeteer.
Since late 2004, Solutia has deployed another nine Riverbed devices at other company locations in the U.S., the U.K., and Belgium, including Steelhead 1000, 2000, and 3000 Series devices.
This is saving the cost of a T1 at each of those sites, explains Goturi, adding that each T1 link typically costs around $12,000 in annual licensing fees, equaling $132,000 a year for all 11 sites. We have saved more than a quarter of a million dollars over the last three years by putting in Riverbed.
The exec estimates that Solutia has spent between $200,000 and $300,000 on the Riverbed devices, claiming a three-year return on his investment.
Its not just the cost [benefits], its also the user experience, he adds, explaining that the Steelheads have significantly boosted application performance across Solutias WAN. We do WAN acceleration -- we had a couple of SQL Server apps that were slow -- they would take minutes, now they take seconds.