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Customer Solutions

Broadleaf has a broad range of customers in a variety of industries ranging from professional services, accounting, architecture, law, healthcare, to manufacturing and the government sector. While the industries our customers are in are diverse, they all face complex data protection and storage issues that Broadleaf's expert engineers can solve.

Haley & Aldrich – WAN Optimization

Haley & Aldrich, headquartered in Boston, is a 500 person consulting firm that specializes in underground engineering, environmental science and management consulting. With locations throughout the United States, Haley & Aldrich’s business necessitates efficient application and file sharing among its many offices as well as a sound policy for offsite data protection and disaster recovery.

When Haley & Aldrich met with Broadleaf, the Haley & Aldrich IT management team was looking at options to reduce the time it took to replicate data from their headquarters’ data center to a DR (disaster recovery) site in order to improve their RPO (Recovery Point Objective). Because it took over eight hours to replicate the data to the DR site, Haley couldn’t meet their disaster recovery SLAs (Service Level Agreements). Eight hours to replicate data meant that at any given time, data available to recover from in the event of a disaster was older data than what they required for a recovery point. H&A’s environment included EqualLogic iSCSI SANs in two locations with SAN to SAN replication.

Broadleaf proposed WAN optimization using Riverbed Steelhead appliances to allow Haley & Aldrich to speed up the replication process between the SANs and meet their RPO and DR SLAs. Haley & Aldrich gained confidence in Broadleaf’s expertise and the Riverbed solutions when Broadleaf engineers helped Haley & Aldrich test the Riverbed appliances and compare the results to other WAN optimization solutions they were considering. Haley & Aldrich initially purchased three Riverbed appliances- one for the Headquarters Data Center, one for the DR site and one for a branch office to confirm the benefits of application acceleration. WAN optimization benefits allowed Haley to meet their RPO and DR SLAs. Further, the benefits of application acceleration for employees in the firm led Haley to purchase a Riverbed Steelhead appliance for each of their 19 additional branch offices as well as Steelhead Mobile for their mobile employees and the Central Management Console for ease of managing all of the Steelheads in their environment.

Steve Kauffman, Haley & Aldrich System Architect, says, “Broadleaf was instrumental in ensuring that Haley chose the right WAN optimization technology for our specific requirements, and truly partnered with Haley & Aldrich to make certain that the rollout to our remote offices was successful and completed in the timeframe we needed. Broadleaf’s extensive knowledge of the Riverbed Steelhead solution as well as of the existing EqualLogic storage in our infrastructure was incredibly valuable to us.”

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association – Server Virtualization

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA), headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut is the largest, broadest-based business membership organization in that state. As the leading voice of business and industry at the State Capitol and before state administrative agencies, CBIA is an organization that requires a sound IT infrastructure to ensure that all records are efficiently stored and managed. When CBIA and Broadleaf met, CBIA was struggling with managing too many servers. They were seeking a cost effective server virtualization solution allowing for consolidation.

CBIA worked with Broadleaf on a professional services engagement to help them fully understand server virtualization solutions and benefits of server virtualization. CBIA’s time with Broadleaf engineers provided them extensive knowledge about the design of various server virtualization solutions as well as the benefits of consolidation of servers. Further, they gleaned insight into the value of server virtualization for server failures, maintenance and disaster recovery. With this knowledge in hand, CBIA chose its server virtualization solution and prepared for deployment with Broadleaf. While the virtualization solution is very easy to set up and use, CBIA knew that Broadleaf engineers were only a phone call away if they had any questions or needed any assistance.

Tom Day, CBIA’s IT Manager says, “CBIA was wrestling with server sprawl. Broadleaf helped educate us on the server virtualization market and then worked with us to determine an appropriate approach for a server virtualization project. Their expertise led us to a solution that we may not have found through our own research. We have found Broadleaf to be informative and responsive. We look forward to working together in the future.”

Northeast Delta Dental – Virtualization for Availability and Recovery

New Hampshire-based Northeast Delta Dental engaged Broadleaf to deliver a comprehensive server virtualization and storage solution. Broadleaf used its proven engagement process to enable the dental insurer to reduce its disaster recovery time from weeks to hours (or even minutes) and cut its administrative and energy costs. Northeast Delta Dental joins a growing list of enterprises enlisting Broadleaf for cost-effective strategies for server and storage virtualization, replication, business continuity and disaster recovery.

As companies of all sizes become increasingly dependent on uptime for both applications and data, the demand for cost-effective, easy-to-manage storage and protection strategies, including business continuity and disaster recovery components, continues to grow. Responsible for claims of nearly 700,000 people, Northeast Delta Dental recognized the business imperative of reducing its recovery time in the event of server downtime or data loss. They looked at the myriad of vendors and sought a partner that could design an architecture tailored to the insurers' daily business needs and disaster recovery goals and recommend the optimal virtualization and shared storage technology.

"Broadleaf analyzed all the possible solutions and recommended the technologies best suited to our specific needs and goals," said Mike Bourbeau, Northeast Delta Dental's vice president of information systems. "With Broadleaf's solution and implementation expertise, Northeast Delta Dental successfully deployed server and storage virtualization that guarantees improved data protection, application availability and recoverability in case of an on-site loss. Not only does our new infrastructure minimize our disaster risk, it also ensures that we will have rapid recovery, limited downtime and little or no data loss in the event of a disaster beyond our control."

"Entrenched in the storage and virtualization solutions and markets, the Broadleaf team helps our customers achieve their data storage and protection objectives," said Eric Faucher, VP of Client Solutions for Broadleaf. "By first taking the time to understand our clients' business and technical environments, needs, challenges and budget, we can then design the optimal architecture to achieve the storage, protection, uptime and recoverability goals and recommend the ideal vendor solutions."

Urell Inc. – Storage consolidation and email archive

Urell, Inc., located in Watertown, MA, has been in business as a manufacturer’s representative for plumbing and heating products since 1949. As a mature business with continued growth, Urell realized that they needed a storage solution that would grow with the company and improve their RTO (recovery time objective) in the event of a data loss.

After discussing Urell’s objectives, Broadleaf Solution Specialists’ shared their knowledge about the SAN marketplace and explained how an iSCSI SAN would allow Urell to achieve their goals. The iSCSI SAN is simple to manage and scales with ease to grow with Urell. The snapshot capabilities of the solution provide the needed tool to improve both the RTO and the RPO (recovery point objective). Data can be recovered quickly from a snapshot and frequent snapshots provide multiple points of recovery. Broadleaf also recommended that Urell include software in their solution that creates bare-metal restore images for fast server recovery.

Urell also worked with Broadleaf to meet their need for an email archive solution. Broadleaf helped to educate Urell about the various types of email archive solutions (software based, appliance based and “in the cloud”) and the pros and cons of each type. Urell decided that an “in the cloud” solution met their needs because it eliminates mailbox quotas and PST files and provides email continuity as well as E-discovery and security.

Todd Graham, IT Manager, Urell Inc., says “Urell first engaged Broadleaf when dealing with pain around direct attached storage. Broadleaf worked with us to find a solution that met our needs. Most recently, we worked together to establish an email archive that will improve reliability and uptime as well as achieving our goals of retention and e-discovery. We count on Broadleaf to respond quickly and trust their engineering expertise.”

Extraprise – Better performing storage solution

As a marketing services provider, Extraprise, located in Boston, MA, offers an integrated set of services to make customer insights actionable across all marketing, sales and service channels. They are the only services company to offer clients the combined skills of a marketing service provider with extensive systems integration expertise using a single consulting methodology. In this business, the Extraprise data center operations staff manages platforms comprised of very large relational data stores and proprietary format databases.

When Broadleaf met Extraprise, their environment included VMware, Windows and a SAN solution for storage. The challenge faced by Extraprise was that their SAN was not performing to the standards that the business required, and there was no way to fine tune the performance to meet their needs. For Extraprise, the goals for a new storage environment were: improved storage management, scalability, performance and enterprise class data protection, features and functionality. After learning about the business needs of Extraprise, Broadleaf recommended that Extraprise deploy a NAS solution connected to their VMware environment via the NFS (Network File System) protocol.

Extraprise purchased this NAS solution and has been able to reach all of the goals they had established for a new storage environment. Josh Maltby, Director of Operations & CSO for Extraprise says, “Broadleaf took the time to understand our business needs and goals, as well as our systems environment. We have been extremely pleased with their recommendations. The storage, integrated with our existing VMware solution, gives us the functionality and scalability needed to meet all of our SLAs (service level agreements) now and as we continue to grow.”

Investment Management Firm – WAN Optimization

A preeminent alternative investment advisor with multiple offices in New York state found that as employees in its various offices needed to work together, they were challenged by inefficiencies of accessing data across the WAN (wide area network). Access to central IT resources and collaboration among offices was essential for effective running of the business. This firm needed faster access times for various applications such as Outlook E-mail, Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), SQL database applications and most other types of files accessed within the network.

After learning about the challenges and needs, Broadleaf recommended Riverbed Steelhead appliances for this investment management firm. Riverbed Steelheads allow for application acceleration, IT consolidation, WAN bandwidth optimization and faster WAN backup all within the same appliance. With Riverbed Steelheads, this New York based investment advisor was able to enhance the end-user collaboration by providing LAN-like access to data across the WAN. Further, bandwidth utilization was significantly reduced.

“Working with Broadleaf allowed my firm the opportunity to thoroughly research and test solutions before proceeding to purchase. The WAN optimization solution optimizes our network traffic and my users have noticed an improvement.” says the IT Manager.

Institution for Savings – Riverbed WAN Optimization

“Working with Broadleaf has allowed Institution for Savings to provide LAN-like performance over the WAN. We are seeing up to a 5x improvement in throughput. The Riverbed solution has led to better control over data as well as a better experience for the end user.” Thomas Hopp, VP of IT at Institution for Savings.

Established in 1820, the Institution for Savings is widely recognized as one of the oldest and most stable mutual banks in the country, with assets totaling approximately $1 billion.923 million. It is also the largest mutual savings bank in the Greater Newburyport region and the third largest on the North Shore of Massachusetts. In recent years, the Institution for Savings has made significant strides to expand its market. In 2006, it opened its first ever full-service banking office outside of Newburyport, in the heart of Salisbury Square. This office is flourishing, and in 2007 was named Business of the Year by the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce and was also named one of the Top Places to Work in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe in 2008. After the bank merged with the Ipswich Co-operative Bank, it now had a footprint of five full service offices in Newburyport, Ipswich, Salisbury and Rowley.

Due to the collaboration among offices, challenges of working across the WAN (wide area network) became a bottleneck as central IT resources needed to be accessed from the multiple branches. To facilitate employees working more effectively, this bank needed faster access times for various applications such as Exchange email, Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and their Core Banking System (TCP based).

It was quickly realized that Riverbed Steelhead appliances would provide an optimal solution to meet Institution for Savings’ needs. Riverbed products accelerate the broadest range of applications that are critical to business. They make IT infrastructure consolidation effective. File, email and application servers can be run from a main office without sacrificing performance for branch workers. The simplicity of the Steelhead appliances further enhance the benefit of this solution. The appliances deploy in minutes without changes to applications, users, routers, or other IT infrastructure. The appliances are also scalable so that they can grow with the business and thus provide investment protection.

Working with Tom Hopp, VP of Information Technology, Broadleaf helped size and deploy the Riverbed Steelhead appliances. The Steelhead appliances almost immediately returned about 70% bandwidth utilization reduction and greatly enhanced the end-user experience by allowing for LAN-like performance at the branch locations.

InfraReDx Inc. – Improved data storage, protection and disaster recovery

InfraReDx Inc.’s mission is to develop novel, phototonic- based medical devices that will help improve the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. When Broadleaf first met InfraReDx they were in the process of moving from a strictly research and development company to a full manufacturing company. These changes and a strong outlook for significant continued growth led management at InfraReDx to seek an improved data storage, protection and disaster recovery infrastructure that would scale well with their growth. After working with InfraReDx to understand their environment and requirements, Broadleaf proposed a shared storage solution with replication to a second shared storage environment that is housed at the Broadleaf Data Center. Broadleaf worked closely with InfraReDx to design the configuration, implement the solution and will help to manage the disaster recovery site at Broadleaf’s Data Center as well.

Dave Hohler, InfraReDx IT Director had these comments about their data storage and protection project and working with Broadleaf:

“InfraReDx Inc is a growing company that required a solution to meet its growing data and recovery needs. InfraReDx looked into several companies and technologies to assist with this critical requirement; ensuring data protection, data backup and quick recovery as well as a scalable solution to meet the growing needs of the organization. As a Life Science company, data capacity and protection was a paramount concern and choosing the right solution was difficult as many companies provide similar services and technology. As an Information Technology Director with 20 years of experience (10 in the Life Sciences arena) I have had many opportunities to work with external organizations offering technical services.

“Broadleaf was chosen as a Business Partner to provide the technological expertise and leadership in this area. They were chosen over many other companies for several important reasons. First and foremost was their customer service focus. They did not want to simply sell us the technology, but to help us along the way to successful deployment and future needs. The company was committed to our success and helped us to overcome many technology hurdles such as remote storage capabilities, firewall configuration, data migration and data archiving. Many Information technology professionals have heard the marketing pitch from organizations claiming to position themselves as a partner, but experienced information technology professionals know this as the right words to gain a business’s trust, however in most cases these companies drop the ball on customer service. It is my opinion that a true business partner will find the solutions and work with you (sometimes in the lead) to overcome any obstacle that might prevent a successful deployment. Broadleaf’s technical services went the extra mile, including working with our external firewall resources to ensure that the data replication between our storage devices worked appropriately. There was never any hesitation to come on site or work remotely to assist us or provide training to ensure a successful completion of our storage implementation.

“I find Broadleaf to be a breath of fresh air - the company works well together from the sales services to the technical services to meet and manage our expectations. When the project was going off-track (due to internal staff limitations) Broadleaf was willing to take the lead on completing the project. They truly cared about our needs and realize the success of our deployment was tied into their success. Anyone can sell product and services, but the true gem is finding a company that understands the benefit of a happy customer. I strongly recommend Broadleaf for any size organization looking for data storage, backup and recovery solutions. Our decision to choose Broadleaf has proven to be a good business decision and we have never second guessed our decision. Keep up the good work!”

Tighe & Bond – WAN Optimization for access to centralized IT services and collaboration

Tighe & Bond, one of the oldest continuously operating engineering firms in New England, was founded in 1911 to consult on broad-based civil engineering projects. In response to changing needs of clients in a changing environment, the firm has evolved to specialize in environmental engineering with a focus on water, wastewater, solid waste and hazardous waste issues. Today, Tighe and Bond provides innovative engineering services to a long list of public and private clients around the country ranging from consulting on limited projects for small businesses to designing the two largest wastewater residuals drying facilities in the United States.

When Broadleaf met Tighe & Bond, the firm had a centralized IT infrastructure for their six offices in Massachusetts and Connecticut. They needed faster access to these central IT resources from the various offices and users needed faster access across the WAN (wide area network) for collaboration. Improved performance across the WAN was required for applications such as AutoCAD, Outlook E-mail and Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) as well as other types of files accessed within the network.

Broadleaf recommended a strategy to Tighe & Bond using Riverbed Steelhead appliances to provide the needed WAN acceleration. With Riverbed’s data reduction, WAN optimization, and application-level latency optimizations, along with remote office file and management functionality, the Steelhead appliances provide Tighe & Bond the needed efficiencies to run their business more effectively.

“Broadleaf Services has done a superior job helping us design and refine our WAN optimization strategy.” — Charles Paskewitz, IT Manager, Tighe & Bond

Thornton Tomasetti – Storage Consolidation and improved RPO

Thornton Tomasetti provides engineering design services to clients worldwide on buildings of all sizes and complexity. Their services cover structural design, building evaluation, and remediation to optimize building efficiency and performance. Thornton Tomasetti mobilizes rapidly to provide disaster response investigations, and delivers expert consulting services and testimony for legal and insurance purposes. In this business, the IT staff at Thornton Tomasetti manages many applications including large CAD files that are vital to the business.

When Broadleaf met Thornton Tomasetti, their environment consisted of direct attached storage across many servers. Their goal was to consolidate their storage to an enterprise class, integrated storage solution built on a redundant architecture. Additionally, they wanted to improve their RPO (recovery point objective). Thornton Tomasetti’s initial research for this project led them to learn about iSCSI SANs.

After learning about the business needs of Thornton Tomasetti, Broadleaf concurred that implementing iSCSI SANs in Chicago and New York would provide an optimal infrastructure. The storage arrays provided the enterprise class solution with a redundant architecture for efficient storage consolidation as well as snapshot capabilities to enable point in time recovery of prior versions of the data. In the event of a data loss, the snapshots allow Thornton Tomasetti to meet their RPO with current data.

Thornton Tomasetti purchased this solution in a phased approach. An iSCSI SAN was implemented in the Chicago office initially where need was greatest and then later in the New York office. The solution’s SAN to SAN replication capabilities are also available to the firm to replicate data between New York and Chicago for offsite data protection.

“We were looking for a quality solution to our expanding storage and data redundancy needs. Our research led us to the appropriate hardware, and to Broadleaf Services for installation and configuration support. The installations went smoothly, thanks to the product's quality design and Broadleaf's effective guidance.” - Jonathan R. Block, Assistant Director of Information Technology at Thornton Tomasetti

Moore Center Services – Storage Consolidation for better management, data protection, and recovery

Moore Center Services, located in Manchester, NH, is a non-profit agency that supports individuals with developmental disabilities and acquired brain injuries in their right to make choices about the kinds and types of services they receive and to make cost effective quality services available to all they serve. The individualized services are directed at enhancing each person’s quality of life.

When Broadleaf first met Michael W. O’Neil, CIO for Moore Center Services, the organization was facing the challenges and inefficiencies of a direct attached storage environment. They had started to research solutions to consolidate storage, improve data protection and make it easier to recover data in the event of a data loss. After doing their own research and consulting with Broadleaf, the Moore Center IT staff found that an iSCSI SAN provided an optimal solution to meet their business needs. O’Neil says the “IT Staff at the Moore Center were, like many non-profits, scrambling to leverage disk space on multiple servers. We did our homework and found that the iSCSI SAN product met our needs. We especially appreciated the ‘no extra licenses required’ and the design and deployment went flawlessly. Users quickly recognized the increase in access speeds and staff priorities can now shift to other projects.”

Key members of the Moore Center Services IT Staff, George Harrington and Tom Duer, who worked closely with Glenn Fund, Broadleaf’s Director/Field Engineer during the set up and implementation of the iSCSI SAN offered their compliments to Glenn:

“Glenn was extremely helpful in setting up, configuring, and operating our new storage solution. He was technically very proficient, he knew the device inside and out, he was able to answer our questions on the spot, and he gave us very good advice on implementing an overall storage strategy. I would like to compliment his training style and his ability to guide us through the entire process with a “hands on” approach. He allowed George to do all the actual keystrokes, which is a very effective training style. He worked long hours with no complaints. He had a positive attitude and an “Easy as Can Be” style in his approach about the device. His style of training gave us a much better confidence level on the device and in our ability to maintain and operate the device after Glenn’s departure. We were also able to talk about different strategies that we could now implement with this device and possible future upgrades in capabilities and deployment and replication options. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Glenn on our new storage solution.” - Thomas Duer, IT Coordinator, Moore Center Services

“My hat comes off for Glenn Fund, Broadleaf’s Director/Field Engineer. He certainly eased the implementation process and provided us with valuable training to carry-on during the on-going management process.” - George Harrington, Network Manager, Moore Center Services

Steffian Bradley Architects – Collaboration and Centralized IT Infrastructure

Steffian Bradley Architects, established in 1932 in Boston, MA, works with clients in North America, Europe and Asia. They are experts in architecture, interiors, planning, lighting and urban design and work with clients in the healthcare, education, residential, senior living and corporate and commercial markets. With about 170 professionals worldwide, Steffian Bradley Architects plan and design innovative environments that serve the needs of their clients, their communities and the environment.

When Steffian Bradley first met with Broadleaf, collaboration that was essential to design work was slow across the WAN (wide area network). Spencer Warncke, CIO of Steffian Bradley Architects, needed faster access times and also wanted to limit the amount of IT infrastructure that was necessary in offices abroad. After learning of these needs and goals, the Broadleaf Solutions’ team recommended Riverbed Steelhead appliances to address both the collaboration need and the goals to limit infrastructure in branch offices. The Riverbed solution has enhanced the end user experience for collaboration by allowing for LAN-like access to data across the WAN. Additionally, the Steelhead appliances have allowed IT resources to be centralized at the headquarters office thereby limiting the infrastructure that is needed in the branch offices.

Warncke says, “Over the last five years, Steffian Bradley Architects has rapidly expanded from a Boston institution to having international presence with satellite offices in Connecticut, London, and Barcelona. Broadleaf helped us weave together a WAN solution with Riverbed Steelhead appliances that has enabled us to limit the infrastructure and staff in our satellite offices while transparently sharing resources. Thanks to their innovative solution, our operations are more streamlined and cost effective. Thanks for the support you have given us.”

Steffian Bradley Architects – Server and Storage Virtualization Project

Steffian Bradley Architects is a leading architectural firm based in Boston, MA that specializes in Architecture, Urban Design, Planning, Interior Design, and Lighting. After engaging Broadleaf for a WAN optimization project for their international and domestic offices, discussions turned to server and storage virtualization. The company’s objective was to plan for flexible growth of data as they continue to grow as an organization and to minimize risk in any type of data loss scenario. Improving the RPO (recovery point objective) and the RTO (recovery time objective) in the event of data loss were key goals for this project.

Working with Broadleaf, Steffian Bradley Architects has now implemented end-to-end virtualization of the server and storage environment. The organization has realized the benefits of server virtualization for consolidation of servers as well as the value for server failures, maintenance and disaster recovery. To fully achieve the benefits of a virtualized environment Steffian Bradley added shared storage on the back end that incorporates a NAS and iSCSI SAN in one platform for efficiency and ease of management. Adding a second storage array at Steffian’s Enfield, CT facility, provides a scheduled replication of all data for disaster recovery protection.

In addition to simplifying administration at corporate HQ, this solution allows for backup and recovery processes that give Steffian Bradley the assurance that their projects can continue even in the worst case scenario of the corporate HQ undergoing a catastrophic data loss. The project will save time and IT man-hours, leading to overall cost reduction.

“After our successful implementation of a WAN optimization solution with Broadleaf, we again turned to their expertise for help with data storage and protection. Their thorough understanding of our environment, needs and goals led them to recommend and implement a server and storage virtualization solution that provides all of the flexibility and protection that we need to run our business effectively and confidently.” - Spencer Warncke, CIO of Steffian Bradley Architects

VFA, Inc. – Access to Central IT resources and collaboration

Headquartered in Boston, MA with offices in Indiana, California, and Washington, D.C., as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom, VFA is the leading provider of integrated software and services for capital planning and facilities asset management. Organizations in a wide range of industries rely on VFA solutions to help them strategically manage their facility assets and maximize the value of their capital investments.

VFA uniquely combines facility assessment services, Web-based software products, and business consulting to provide their customers with a comprehensive solution for the complete capital management lifecycle. When Broadleaf met VFA, the organization was facing challenges because access to central IT resources and collaboration between offices was inefficient across the WAN. VFA needed faster access times for various applications including email, Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), and many other types of files accessed within the network.

Broadleaf proposed a WAN optimization solution with Riverbed Steelhead appliances to augment VFA’s MPLS connection between remote locations. VFA tested the solution and was extremely pleased with the enhanced end-user experience. The Riverbed solution truly provides VFA with LAN-like access to data across the WAN. Bandwidth utilization has also been significantly reduced.

“Working with Broadleaf has enabled VFA to deploy a solution that has been critical in solving access issues for our remote offices with almost no need for IT resources. The Riverbed product simply works,” said John Fidler, IT Manager, VFA Inc.

Sasaki Associates – Lotus Notes WAN Optimization

Springman Lee, Sasaki Associates Network Administrator, says, “Working with Broadleaf and Riverbed has been a success for Sasaki. In addition to using 60% less bandwidth for Notes, we also benefit from 95% reduction on SSL and 82% reduction on [NetApp] SnapMirror traffic. Riverbed’s commitment to improving their product has yielded excellent results.“

Sasaki Associates, headquartered in Watertown, MA, is an interdisciplinary design firm with a highly consultative and collaborative infrastructure. Their longstanding focus on the environment and sustainability stands as a testament to their leadership status in the AEC industry. With locations on both coasts, in Watertown, MA and San Francisco, CA, Sasaki demands cutting-edge collaborative capabilities from their IT infrastructure. When Sasaki first spoke with Broadleaf in fall of 2006, they were faced with challenges around file sharing and application performance over the WAN. Working together, a solution from Riverbed for WAN optimization was seen as the appropriate technology solution and the immediate results were obvious.

With each release of Riverbed Operating System (RiOS), Riverbed continues to widen their competitive advantage in the WAN optimization industry. This is proven by Sasaki now achieving 60% less bandwidth usage for Lotus Notes due to the firmware update. A 20% increase in optimization has been realized since its first implementation which averaged 40% bandwidth compression for Lotus Notes. Riverbed also leads by delivering the only robust, mobile worker optimization platform and adding more Layer-7 application awareness.

On Target Utility Services – Storage Consolidation and Improved Backup

“The Broadleaf team did a great job of listening to our requirements, understanding our environment and keeping our long term goals in mind. We don’t have a large IT team that can dedicate a lot of time to managing the storage platform, so we really needed an easy to use, easy to install solution. The Broadleaf team came onsite and worked with us side by side. We were up and running with the new platform in a day and through their knowledge transfer, we know how to be self sufficient with the system as well. Broadleaf was a great resource throughout this process from initial requirement analysis, right through implementation.“ says Elery Beale, Network Administrator/Support, On Target Utility Services.

On Target Utility Services, headquartered in Gardiner, Maine provides locating and construction services to utility, cable and private customers throughout New England. Additionally, they provide emergency storm repair services for utility clients in Canada. The firm operates from two offices in Maine, one in Massachusetts and one in Connecticut. On Target has more than 250 skilled employees who provide safe, cost effective, reliable service to their customers.

When Broadleaf met On Target Utility Services, their environment consisted of direct attached storage across many servers that were running out of space. They did not have a means to provide adequate backup or any type of real time data protection to meet the organization’s needs. Further, On Target plans to implement a virtual server environment for high availability and flexibility and had the goal of putting the appropriate storage environment in place as the first phase towards that.

After learning about the business needs and goals of On Target Utility Services, Broadleaf determined that block level storage with an iSCSI SAN was the best platform to meet their needs. The iSCSI SAN provides an enterprise class solution with a redundant architecture for efficient storage consolidation as well as snapshot capabilities to enable point in time recovery of prior versions of data. In the event of a data loss, the snapshots allow On Target to very quickly recover data from as recently as the last snapshot. The iSCSI SAN sets the stage for the server virtualization project since the shared storage platform is needed to achieve their goals for high availability and flexibility with server virtualization.

Z Corporation – Virtualization for Improved Availability

Z Corporation, located in Burlington, MA, makes products that enable users to capture, edit, and print 3D data with unprecedented speed, ease, versatility and affordability. These products include the world’s fastest high-definition 3D printers — machines that produce physical 3D models from digital data in full color – and uniquely portable 3D scanners – handheld machines that digitize 3D surfaces in real time. Z Corporation technology is enabling a wide range of applications in manufacturing, architecture, civil engineering, reverse engineering, geographic information systems (GIS), medicine and entertainment.

Paul Mueller, MIS Manager, had been interested in virtualization for some time to improve application availability, improve manageability of servers and applications and reduce the time it takes to implement new applications, but he had thought the cost would be prohibitive for a company the size of Z Corporation. Seeing the market trends and speaking with Broadleaf, he realized that a virtualized environment and enterprise class storage was a realistic goal. Broadleaf went through their proven process to understand Z Corp’s business and technical requirements, needs, challenges and budget in order to design and implement the optimal architecture to achieve the application availability and manageability that the company wanted to realize.

Broadleaf recommend an industry leading server virtualization solution along with an enterprise class shared storage solution that provides both NAS and SAN on the one unified platform. Z Corporation used this solution to replace an older NAS device and consolidated the application servers that were still on direct attached storage. Mueller had concerns about virtualizing SQL and Exchange because he heard of severe performance issues if implementation was not done properly. Broadleaf’s careful design and planning process resulted in a smooth, successful implementation and migration of all of the applications.

Mueller noted that "The time spent managing our server/application environment has been greatly reduced and application and data availability have been greatly improved. I am really glad that I connected with Broadleaf for this project. We were heading down the road with another vendor’s solution that would have been much more complicated and would not have lasted- we would most likely have had to replace it in the short term. The solution Broadleaf recommended is optimal for Z Corporation. Working with Broadleaf was a very good move for Z Corporation."