Putting Riverbed Steelhead Appliances To the Test

At any professional services firm, but particularly for an AmLaw 200 law firm with offices in several locations, data protection is a key concern for management. At my current firm as well as a previous one, Riverbed Steelhead' appliances played a crucial part in and facilitated our data protection approaches by enabling the consolidation and centralization of our critical servers and data. Riverbed has listened to its customers and has continued to improve its products with the result that they not only optimize WAN connectivity, but also offer additional features and functionality to help firms more effectively execute their technology plans.

WAN Optimization

Riverbed is one of the key components of our current network infrastructure at Lathrop & Gage LLP, a 300-attorney law firm with locations from New York to Los Angeles, with its largest headcount in Kansas City, MO. Riverbed is critical to the firm's ability to accomplish several big initiatives in upgrading our technology services to meet the needs of those 300 attorneys across disparate practice groups and locations. The initial driver for procuring Riverbed devices is the current initiative to consolidate and centralize all primary infrastructures into one central location (Kansas City) so as to ensure a consistent “look and feel” for all applications firm-wide, while also simplifying the ability to protect data through backup and replication.

Though a big part of it, the WAN optimization (which ensures that
applications being delivered from Kansas City still perform properly in New York and Los Angeles) is not the only concern. It is the key component that drove the acquisition as it enables us to make the technology of the firm function from a remote location as if it were located locally to each office.

With the Riverbed Steelheads in place, people in our Los Angeles office can access e-mail from a server in Kansas City without any noticeable difference than if the server was in Los Angeles. By deploying Riverbeds and moving the data and applications to Kansas City, the firm freed up the hardware, maintenance and licensing that otherwise would be necessary, thus producing cost savings on a number of different levels. This means fewer pieces of hardware to refresh and worry about, as well as fewer servers to maintain and license.

The Riverbed directly affects replication and data protection, and plays an important role in disaster recovery and business continuity. Instead of backing up data from multiple locations and replicating many-to-many servers, we can backup and replicate from a single location (which also reduces the number of licenses needed when purchasing backup and replication software ' another cost savings).

When an organization is utilizing a host-based replication product, or even SAN-based, where it's replicating the data in the background, it is only doing so from one location to another location. By doing this, we're able to protect 11 different locations all at once, bring servers back to a single datacenter, and consolidate them, thus easing the complexity of the replication scenario. (These secondary servers to which we will be replicating will be located in another relatively-central yet geographically diverse location from the primary datacenter.)

An App Is Not an App:
The Beauty of Prioritization

Another benefit of utilizing the Riverbed technology is its ability to apply quality of service (“QoS”) to traffic, which allows one to specify which applications have priority on the network. This is a key feature, as voice in particular is always the most susceptible to potential problems, such as jitter or latency, which affect call quality. By giving voice packets priority over other traffic, we can ensure that voice calls do not get degraded or sound “choppy,” which would occur when the data is delivered at different speeds.

A secondary priority for our network QoS is video. At our firm, we do a high volume of videoconferencing; by ensuring that video traffic gets priority over basic data, we can ensure high quality video conferences. We then allow remaining data to pass as usual. By applying QoS in conjunction with the WAN optimization being performed by the Riverbed devices, we have been able to avoid investing in excess bandwidth, as we're able to better utilize the bandwidth that we have.

RSP: The Next Step

One of the great, recent improvements made to these devices ' and what shows that the company has been paying attention to its customers ' is one of their newest additions: RSP, RiOS Services Platform (RiOS being the “Riverbed Operating System”). RSP is just the latest upgrade to the Steelhead devices.

Because, in the end, the Riverbed devices are really just sophisticated computers running specialized software, Riverbed has extended their capabilities by adding functionality that takes advantage of that. RSP allows customers to use that Riverbed box as a virtualization platform, thus enabling them to run multiple other servers (Windows Domain Controller, Print Server, etc.) on the single Riverbed device.

A great example is that, even at “remote” sites (in our case, our ten other offices), all Windows networks rely on domain controllers. A domain controller is responsible for network authentication and directory (“DNS”) lookups, essentially performing the “janitorial work” on the network by telling local users where and how to access network services and applications. Historically, one would have to place a dedicated domain controller at each remote office; with the advent of the RSP platform, that functionality can be moved to the Riverbed device ' thus eliminating another server. A further example is the separate server that usually is set up to provide print serving. Again, this can be virtualized and run on the same Riverbed device.

Additional Capabilities

Riverbed smartly has partnered with other software vendors to add value to their RSP offering. One such vendor, which provides Web filtering (to screen end users from clicking on malicious Web sites), is Secure Computing (recently purchased by McAfee). Its software also can be run in a virtualized instance on the Riverbed devices.

So, in our instance, when we recently opened that new office in Los Angeles, those key services were all set up on that one box. The firm doesn't have to replicate and back up data at the new site, and we were able to open the office without having to deploy numerous other new servers. It's practically an “office in a box.” This allows us to focus our energy on the data center.

Another nice component is the SMC (Steelhead Mobile Client). All our attorneys carry laptops; by installing the SMC on those laptops, this enables them to communicate with the Riverbed device back in the data center and further optimize their individual traffic when operating remotely. When an attorney is on the road or at home, they can connect via the firm's VPN software, which enables them to connect and be “on the network.”

The SMC then greatly improves the performance that one might be getting merely through a DSL connection or a Wi-Fi hot-spot. The end result is that remote access can now be a much more comfortable experience.

DR Uses for Riverbed Steelhead

At a previous firm, my experience was much the same. Riverbed enabled centralized, disk-to-disk backup strategies that simplified for us the remote office backup and data center replication. The particular services we used reduced backup windows and transfer times so we were able to maximize application availability. Riverbed boosted network performance to enable us to leverage our otherwise “average-sized” WAN links for application delivery.

“High availability” and replication software from CA (formerly Computer Associates) simplified and automated the remote office data protection for both desktops and servers. Once the data was stored centrally on primary servers in the data center, CA XOsoft software enabled us to fully replicate all critical systems to secondary servers housed in a co-location site in Chicago.

In the event of a pending disaster or during/after an unplanned outage, we were able ' through a few clicks and simple, documented procedures ' to seamlessly “fail-over” to the secondary servers. All systems were transferred to the Chicago facility where all of the firm's offices maintained constant access. Firm personnel were able to continue working and accessing all systems the same as if they were still running in the primary facility.

By leveraging two “best-of-breed” technologies and utilizing our existing resources, we were able to put together a rock-solid data protection plan that provided our end-users the highest levels of system availability. Our use of the Riverbed and CA products proved invaluable to our effort and represented a relatively small investment, financially, while providing an excellent return in the level of protection they afforded us.

Conclusion

Riverbed has solidified its place in the market with these recent enhancements of its products. These recent upgrades, while not unique to law firms, allow them to fully maximize their technology services to their member attorneys. Many of these recent changes do so in a way that minimizes the amount of hardware necessary, a key ingredient to any consolidation effort, especially when managing multiple offices.

At any professional services firm, but particularly for an AmLaw 200 law firm with offices in several locations, data protection is a key concern for management. At my current firm as well as a previous one, Riverbed Steelhead' appliances played a crucial part in and facilitated our data protection approaches by enabling the consolidation and centralization of our critical servers and data. Riverbed has listened to its customers and has continued to improve its products with the result that they not only optimize WAN connectivity, but also offer additional features and functionality to help firms more effectively execute their technology plans.

WAN Optimization

Riverbed is one of the key components of our current network infrastructure at Lathrop & Gage LLP, a 300-attorney law firm with locations from New York to Los Angeles, with its largest headcount in Kansas City, MO. Riverbed is critical to the firm's ability to accomplish several big initiatives in upgrading our technology services to meet the needs of those 300 attorneys across disparate practice groups and locations. The initial driver for procuring Riverbed devices is the current initiative to consolidate and centralize all primary infrastructures into one central location (Kansas City) so as to ensure a consistent “look and feel” for all applications firm-wide, while also simplifying the ability to protect data through backup and replication.

Though a big part of it, the WAN optimization (which ensures that
applications being delivered from Kansas City still perform properly in New York and Los Angeles) is not the only concern. It is the key component that drove the acquisition as it enables us to make the technology of the firm function from a remote location as if it were located locally to each office.

With the Riverbed Steelheads in place, people in our Los Angeles office can access e-mail from a server in Kansas City without any noticeable difference than if the server was in Los Angeles. By deploying Riverbeds and moving the data and applications to Kansas City, the firm freed up the hardware, maintenance and licensing that otherwise would be necessary, thus producing cost savings on a number of different levels. This means fewer pieces of hardware to refresh and worry about, as well as fewer servers to maintain and license.

The Riverbed directly affects replication and data protection, and plays an important role in disaster recovery and business continuity. Instead of backing up data from multiple locations and replicating many-to-many servers, we can backup and replicate from a single location (which also reduces the number of licenses needed when purchasing backup and replication software ' another cost savings).

When an organization is utilizing a host-based replication product, or even SAN-based, where it's replicating the data in the background, it is only doing so from one location to another location. By doing this, we're able to protect 11 different locations all at once, bring servers back to a single datacenter, and consolidate them, thus easing the complexity of the replication scenario. (These secondary servers to which we will be replicating will be located in another relatively-central yet geographically diverse location from the primary datacenter.)

An App Is Not an App:
The Beauty of Prioritization

Another benefit of utilizing the Riverbed technology is its ability to apply quality of service (“QoS”) to traffic, which allows one to specify which applications have priority on the network. This is a key feature, as voice in particular is always the most susceptible to potential problems, such as jitter or latency, which affect call quality. By giving voice packets priority over other traffic, we can ensure that voice calls do not get degraded or sound “choppy,” which would occur when the data is delivered at different speeds.

A secondary priority for our network QoS is video. At our firm, we do a high volume of videoconferencing; by ensuring that video traffic gets priority over basic data, we can ensure high quality video conferences. We then allow remaining data to pass as usual. By applying QoS in conjunction with the WAN optimization being performed by the Riverbed devices, we have been able to avoid investing in excess bandwidth, as we're able to better utilize the bandwidth that we have.

RSP: The Next Step

One of the great, recent improvements made to these devices ' and what shows that the company has been paying attention to its customers ' is one of their newest additions: RSP, RiOS Services Platform (RiOS being the “Riverbed Operating System”). RSP is just the latest upgrade to the Steelhead devices.

Because, in the end, the Riverbed devices are really just sophisticated computers running specialized software, Riverbed has extended their capabilities by adding functionality that takes advantage of that. RSP allows customers to use that Riverbed box as a virtualization platform, thus enabling them to run multiple other servers (Windows Domain Controller, Print Server, etc.) on the single Riverbed device.

A great example is that, even at “remote” sites (in our case, our ten other offices), all Windows networks rely on domain controllers. A domain controller is responsible for network authentication and directory (“DNS”) lookups, essentially performing the “janitorial work” on the network by telling local users where and how to access network services and applications. Historically, one would have to place a dedicated domain controller at each remote office; with the advent of the RSP platform, that functionality can be moved to the Riverbed device ' thus eliminating another server. A further example is the separate server that usually is set up to provide print serving. Again, this can be virtualized and run on the same Riverbed device.

Additional Capabilities

Riverbed smartly has partnered with other software vendors to add value to their RSP offering. One such vendor, which provides Web filtering (to screen end users from clicking on malicious Web sites), is Secure Computing (recently purchased by McAfee). Its software also can be run in a virtualized instance on the Riverbed devices.

So, in our instance, when we recently opened that new office in Los Angeles, those key services were all set up on that one box. The firm doesn't have to replicate and back up data at the new site, and we were able to open the office without having to deploy numerous other new servers. It's practically an “office in a box.” This allows us to focus our energy on the data center.

Another nice component is the SMC (Steelhead Mobile Client). All our attorneys carry laptops; by installing the SMC on those laptops, this enables them to communicate with the Riverbed device back in the data center and further optimize their individual traffic when operating remotely. When an attorney is on the road or at home, they can connect via the firm's VPN software, which enables them to connect and be “on the network.”

The SMC then greatly improves the performance that one might be getting merely through a DSL connection or a Wi-Fi hot-spot. The end result is that remote access can now be a much more comfortable experience.

DR Uses for Riverbed Steelhead

At a previous firm, my experience was much the same. Riverbed enabled centralized, disk-to-disk backup strategies that simplified for us the remote office backup and data center replication. The particular services we used reduced backup windows and transfer times so we were able to maximize application availability. Riverbed boosted network performance to enable us to leverage our otherwise “average-sized” WAN links for application delivery.

“High availability” and replication software from CA (formerly Computer Associates) simplified and automated the remote office data protection for both desktops and servers. Once the data was stored centrally on primary servers in the data center, CA XOsoft software enabled us to fully replicate all critical systems to secondary servers housed in a co-location site in Chicago.

In the event of a pending disaster or during/after an unplanned outage, we were able ' through a few clicks and simple, documented procedures ' to seamlessly “fail-over” to the secondary servers. All systems were transferred to the Chicago facility where all of the firm's offices maintained constant access. Firm personnel were able to continue working and accessing all systems the same as if they were still running in the primary facility.

By leveraging two “best-of-breed” technologies and utilizing our existing resources, we were able to put together a rock-solid data protection plan that provided our end-users the highest levels of system availability. Our use of the Riverbed and CA products proved invaluable to our effort and represented a relatively small investment, financially, while providing an excellent return in the level of protection they afforded us.

Conclusion

Riverbed has solidified its place in the market with these recent enhancements of its products. These recent upgrades, while not unique to law firms, allow them to fully maximize their technology services to their member attorneys. Many of these recent changes do so in a way that minimizes the amount of hardware necessary, a key ingredient to any consolidation effort, especially when managing multiple offices.