Different Country...Same Decision

 

The effects of jet lag wake me up...it's now 2am in Mumbai, India as I begin to write this blog.  On this trip I have met with some large potential customers who are evaluating Riverbed.  Although the cultural surroundings of these meetings are different, the topics we discussed are very much the same as in meetings I regularly have with customers in the US--specifically, the customers want to know what the differences are between Riverbed, Cisco WAAS, and other competitive offerings.

Every week I meet with IT organizations who wrestle with these same questions.  I remember a number of months ago meeting with executives from Lantmannen.  After a careful evaluation process, they ultimately chose Riverbed.  As a result of their decision, Lantmannen executives now estimate that they will save more than $60 million over five years.  More details about Lantmannen's Riverbed experience can be found in CIO Magazine.  The online edition of the article can be accessed here:

http://www.cio.com/article/500495/WAN_Optimization_Maximizing_a_Global_Investment

Many other customers have experienced benefits similar to what Lantamannen has received with Riverbed.  You can read about some of their personal accounts in Riverbed's community forum (http://wdsforum.org/rvrb/board?board.id=halloffame). 

But not every prospective customer chooses Riverbed.  Some are attracted by the lower pricing of competitive offerings.  Often brand loyalty plays a part, and the purchase rationale often involves an assumption that Cisco's WAAS product is "good enough."  I also have regular opportunities to meet with these customers, often months or years after their fateful decision to purchase WAAS.  The experiences they relate to me are not pleasant.  A common theme is that while they were able to get a small number of WAAS devices working, complications arose as the size of the deployment grew.  What was originally envisioned to be a 60-site deployment had to be scaled down to something significantly smaller.  After struggling through many months of frustration and futility, real-life WAN performance requirements forced them to take another look at Riverbed.

The customers I have met in India face the same decision.  Having tested Riverbed, they clearly want the Steelhead solution, but they are being tempted by Cisco's offer of 80% or greater discounts for WAAS.  It is the same situation to that faced by many other customers around the world.