WAN optimization company Expand Networks technology has been deployed at South Africa grocery chain SPAR Group, in conjunction with African telecommunications provider, Telkom SA, to deliver a managed WAN optimization service.
Expand’s technology is deployed across SPAR’s 900 locations in South Africa.
SPAR Group Networks Services Manager Greg Hay said, “With so much time-critical data traveling over the network, we found that some web-based applications, particularly business banking sites, were experiencing slow responses, and in some cases remote support to stores was also slow and inconsistent. We knew we needed to optimize bandwidth between our headquarters, distribution centers, and stores to mitigate WAN latency and congestion over our satellite links.”
Hay added, “Expand was one of many vendor solutions we evaluated during this process, including Riverbed and Cisco. Expand Networks expertise in optimizing both fixed and satellite links was key in the decision process."
The deployment of the entire solution to 900 SPAR sites was completed in six months.
Expand Networks’ Byte level Caching, Optimization & Acceleration techniques, immediately realized a reduction in repetitive traffic flowing across the network, such as common websites, antivirus updates and Windows patches, while Expand’s Layer 7 monitoring and QoS has provided the visibility to assess exactly what traffic is passing through links and then, more importantly, control it.
Expand's customers include American Express, Bacardi USA, BMW, Continental Airlines, Carr America, Colgate, Elizabeth Arden, Reed Exhibitions, Target and the US Department of Defense.
The SPAR Group Ltd. operates 6 distribution centers, and supplies goods and services to almost 800 SPAR stores in South Africa. The SPAR Group listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2005.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 8, 2010
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