IBM

With 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate, IBM is the world’s largest information technology company and a leader in e-business solutions. IBM’s mission is to lead in the creation, development and manufacture of the industry’s most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. IBM, therefore, depends on its worldwide network of solutions and services professionals to translate these advanced technologies into business value for its customers.

Lead Infrastructure Architect Steve Street is responsible for defining and supporting IBM EMEA’s internal infrastructure of computing services. In 2000, IBM faced the challenge of vigorous growth and the resulting demand for network bandwidth. This demand prompted IBM to look for a solution that would increase efficiency and throughput, enabling the computing giant to get more out of its existing network, while maintaining the high level of service IBM demands of itself. Street turned to Stampede Technologies’ TurboGold.

IBM initially conducted a pilot for the software in May of 2000. The performance benefits were substantial and led to IBM’s decision in October of the same year to purchase TurboGold for its 400,000 Lotus Notes users worldwide. Street leads the internal infrastructure architecture team in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) where approximately 82,000 users are currently operating on TurboGold. According to Street, about 80 percent of these users are at remote sites. Because for remote and mobile users, replication is even more of a strain, IBM EMEA has seen a significant increase in time savings and efficiency.

"When we chose to use TurboGold, we knew it would be a very beneficial proposition for IBM," said Street. "The question was just how positive would it be? Since then, TurboGold has enabled us to avoid the purchase of new bandwidth, while delivering a 50 to 90 percent time savings on replications. There is no doubt that we’ve seen substantial productivity gains, particularly for our dial-in users."

According to Street, IBM has seen a much-needed containment of network traffic, a dramatic increase in the speed of data access and an average of 2 to 1 performance gain for remote users.

"Those users dialing in really see the difference,” said Street. "The caching feature especially means that diary look-ups are much, much quicker, "Street says that a key element to TurboGold’s success at IBM was the fact that the system programmers immediately bought into the product and its inherent benefits. They recognized that TurboGold would help them a great deal to get their job done. In many cases, key members of IBM’s staff, who used to travel to fixed sites to perform support, were able to do the same job from their remote locations, saving the company time and money. As a result, TurboGold has enabled IBM—which recently saw an increase in internal customer satisfaction—to better serve its internal customers.

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