Impresa Pizzarotti

IN BRIEF

Industry

• Construction

Challenge

• Remote and office based employees experiencing poor application performance when accessing applications hosted in the data center resulting in reduced employee productivity
• Increase bandwidth availability at construction sites

Solution

• Riverbed Steelhead appliances

Benefits

• 75 – 80 percent reduction in bandwidth utilization
• Application performance improved from minutes to seconds
• Improved employee productivity

Impresa Pizzarotti & C. S.p.A.

Riverbed Enables Construction Company to Improve Application Performance Without Upgrading Bandwidth

Background

L’Impresa Pizzarotti & C. S.p.A. is one the top four Italian construction companies, handling many major public and private construction projects. Its offices are located in approximately twenty countries across Europe and the Middle East, and it has over 2,500 employees. Its headquarters are in Parma, Italy, and turnover is around € 1 billion.

Challenge: Improve application performance without upgrading bandwidth

L’Impresa Pizzarotti & C. S.p.A. needed a solution to resolve the issue of poor application performance over the wide area network (WAN). Many employees at Pizzarotti work at construction sites, dispersed across many countries, with limited IT services available.

“Many employees at the construction sites use applications that are hosted at the Parma headquarters, or software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications stored in the cloud,” explains Augusto Lambertino, head of IT at Pizzarotti.

“Our employees often rely on AutoCad - these files can be very large – Outlook, and EMC Documentum to conduct business. But low- bandwidth connections meant that AutoCad files and other applications were slow to open, which was frustrating for our employees.”

However, the most obvious solution – increasing bandwidth - was not always an option. “Where the construction sites are situated in remote locations broadband or fiber optic links are not always available,” says Lambertino. “In addition our construction sites are temporary in nature, and typically only operate for around three years. Even when broadband or fiber is available it is still uneconomical to invest in this infrastructure. We needed a solution that was both economic and effective.”

Solution: Riverbed Steelhead appliances accelerate application performance

Pizzarotti realized that WAN optimization offered the best solution to its problem, and the company considered Riverbed Technology and solutions from other vendors. The company decided to evaluate the Riverbed® Steelhead® appliances, and installed appliances at its Parma headquarters, and at a construction site in Sicily, where a major motorway was being built. “The Sicily site was large, with around 90 employees, and a long way from any broadband or fiberoptic lines,” explains Lambertino.

The tests included sending large data files between the headquarters and the construction site. “The results were compelling – we immediately noticed a large improvement in application performance speeds. Files that used to take minutes to transfer were now available within seconds,” says Lambertino. Following the successful evaluation, Pizzarotti has deployed Steelhead appliances at a number of construction sites.

Benefits: Application performance improved from minutes to seconds and up to 80% WAN traffic optimized

By deploying a Riverbed WAN optimization solution, Pizzarotti has seen significant improvements in application performance. “Employees at sites where the Steelhead appliances have been deployed have noticed a big difference in performance,” says Lambertino, “applications are running faster and productivity has increased.”

“Even the sites without Steelhead appliances have benefitted,” adds Lambertino, “Around 75-80 per cent of WAN traffic is now optimized, enabling the available bandwidth to be used much more efficiently. This has improved overall application performance across the entire network. Branch offices with large numbers of employees have especially noticed a difference in performance.”

SUMMARY

Pizzarotti operates dozens of construction sites in many countries. Employees based at these construction sites use business-critical applications that are stored centrally at the Pizzarotti headquarters in Parma or in a cloud environment. Some applications require high bandwidth links for optimum performance, but not all construction sites can access broadband or fiber.

By deploying Riverbed Steelhead appliances at selected locations, Pizzarotti has increased application performance speeds and improved employee productivity. Up to 80% of network traffic is now optimized, leading to an overall improvement in application performance across the entire WAN.

“Low-bandwidth connections meant that AutoCad files and other applications were slow to open, which was frustrating for our employees.”

“Files that used to take minutes to transfer were now available within seconds.”

“Employees at sites where the Steelhead appliances have been deployed have noticed a big difference in performance. Applications are running faster and productivity has increased.”