RiOS in Rio

I had another opportunity to visit Brazil last month.  It is amazing to see the progress Riverbed has made in the region.  My first visit to Rio de Janeiro was in late 2005; the original customer I met with on that first visit now has over 100 Steelhead appliances deployed and operational in their production network.  Back in 2005, we only had one channel partner in the country.  On this visit I was busy meeting with and training a considerable collection of different local partners from various cities throughout Brazil, all eager and anxious to build up their experience and expertise in Riverbed products.

But what made all this progress all the more remarkable is that the effective Government import tax rate in Brazil is more than 100%.  Brazilian customers are paying more than 2X the price that their US counterparts are paying for the Steelhead solution.  And yet, the return-on-investment from their Riverbed purchase was still so compelling that the customers continued to buy.  Despite the harsh tariffs, they were unable to resist the addictive productivity benefits that the Steelhead devices delivered.

Here are a couple of photos from that first trip way back in 2005, taken with my long since discarded Treo 650 phone.  The first is of the city of Rio de Janeiro from Sugarloaf, a massive rock formation along the shores of the city.  The second photo is that of the famous statue Christ the Redeemer.  It was a cloudy day with a sprinking of rain, and the pictures are of poor quality.  But nevertheless it was fun to see all the sights.