LuckyVitamin.com, an online distributor of health and wellness products, was facing challenges in optimizing performance across its dynamic and complex website. The company was aware of the importance of web performance and had spent years manually optimizing their pages. However, this process was time-consuming, never-ending, and required highly specialized work from some of the best developers in the company. The company was looking for an automated solution that could deliver faster pages consistently and reliably across their entire site.

As a leading provider of home media entertainment, Yes Satellite wanted to enhance their services and provide over-the-top content to customers. In order to provide services like video on demand (VOD), Yes Satellite needed a global load balancing solution with low latency. Their main priority was to secure a solution that provided load balancing and integrated security with one management system.

Ipgarde, a service provider based in France, hosts corporate customers’ servers and network devices in a virtualized environment. The company was using an open source solution for load balancing, but it could not fully guarantee easy configuration and migration, and 24/7 connectivity. The company was also facing challenges in testing server availability and load balancing, guaranteeing the availability of customer websites without disrupting the existing infrastructure and servers. The company’s existing open source solution did not support one-leg configuration. As servers were not being used optimally, another challenge was to reduce the number of public IP addresses used, by creating just one IP address which in turn would manage the flow of information to additional IP addresses, decreasing the overload on the CPU. Additionally, Ipgarde has been experiencing some DoS attacks, particularly from customer websites due to insufficient firewall protection.

Switch’s SUPERNAP data centers required protection from all forms of DDoS threats via a security solution that provided a wide breadth of protection, thereby allowing the company to maintain 100% uptime and business continuity for its customers, even in the face of an attack. The new solution would need to be capable of mitigating DDoS attacks of up to 300Gbps and 220 million packets-per-second from a single device.

P&Tluxembourg, the leading postal and telecommunications services provider in Luxembourg, was looking to transition into a cloud service provider. The company wanted to provide isolated private cloud environments for its customers. They needed a solution that was scalable, easily managed, and would provide a high quality of experience (QoE) for users. The company sought a cost-efficient, virtualized solution that would provide very clear isolation between customers. High quality of experience (QoE) for customers was a top priority, in order to ensure that users could access content quickly and efficiently. Also, scalability was needed to ensure P&T would be able to add new services and customers, without requiring a forklift upgrade.

deltathree, a leading provider of SIP-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions for service providers and consumers worldwide, was looking for a network solution that would deliver a reliable IT infrastructure to optimally support its growing number of Hosted Consumer VoIP Solution and Reseller customers. The company’s main technical issue was to find a load balancer for both SIP and HTML traffic that would support high load traffic and provide seamless redundancy. Their focus was on sustaining 100% uptime for customers and continuing to build its business through this maintained reliability. In addition, deltathree required that any solution chosen would also provide help with IT infrastructure maintenance and upgrade procedures as well as reduce the need for manual configuration.

Ace Hardware Corp., the largest global retailer-owned cooperative, needed to enhance both the customer shopping experience and employee responsiveness to customers through increased reliability of their CRM and ERP applications. With over 4,800 stores located in 50 states and 70 countries, Ace Hardware's global operations depend on the full availability, highest performance and complete security of networked applications across all store locations. The company needed a comprehensive availability, performance and security solution for their server farm infrastructure.

Play65.com, a leading online, skill-based gaming platform provider, was looking for an integrated solution to optimize and secure its network performance. Any network faults would cause Play65.com immediate revenue loss in tens of thousands of dollars per hour and damage to its reputation. Therefore, Play65.com was looking for an application-level solution to assure network availability, performance and full security for the more than 2 million hits a day on its servers. Web-based services are an integral part of Play65.com’s business model. The company provides an online skill-based gaming platform for players from all around the world and its business revenues are derived from a fee it charges winning players. Network performance is therefore a pivotal concern for Play65.com since it’s the backbone of its revenues and is densely trafficked on a regular basis. Play65.com conducts nearly 18 million games a month and therefore holds more than 2 million hits a day on its servers. From a business profitability point of view this means that if the company’s network went down, it could stand to loose approximately about $20,000 per hour.

Over a three month period, Xittel experienced 200 multi-vector DDoS attacks on a daily basis, ranging from 1 to 45 attacks per day. Each attack lasted 60 to 120 minutes and completely overwhelmed the company's communication links with illegitimate traffic, making it impossible to transmit information. The call center went from 1,000 to 6,000 calls per week and some clients didn’t even have phone service to contact the company. Xittel discovered that one specific hosted client was the target of attacks. The company sporadically disconnected the targeted client. However, since it could not afford to protect itself against these menacing attacks, Xittel was forced to ask its client to find another service provider. As several of Xittel’s clients relied on Internet access and connectivity, the need for a mitigation solution increased and the survival of the organization depended on it.

Brinkster, an Infrastructure as a Service provider, needed a load balancing solution for web, cloud and mobile based applications. As an IaaS company, it was imperative that Brinkster provide load balancing capabilities for all web, cloud and mobile based applications. It is a capability that Brinkster offers in their products, as well as one they offer to customers for infrastructure deals. As applications continue to evolve and become more complex, there is an increase of stress on networks – resulting in unwanted downtime, maintenance efforts and costs. Therefore, Brinkster needed a solution that could accommodate these growing, key infrastructure challenges that affect web applications.

Brinkster, a global hosting and cloud service provider, needed a solution to protect its vast client base against a new generation of sophisticated, multi-vectored cyber attacks. The company hosts over 50,000 customers and needed a security solution that could protect its infrastructure and customers from a wide range of cyber attacks designed to impact its ability to service customers, or to infringe on the security of their information. The solution had to meet Brinkster’s rigorous demands for uninterrupted network uptime so it could deliver on its service level agreements (SLAs). As a result of recent attacks on their customers, Brinkster focused on protection from denial-of-service attacks in the form of networks and application-level floods, zero-day vulnerability attacks, low-volume, scanning, cracking and advanced persistent threats. While a growing portion of Brinkster’s data traffic is secured and encrypted by the SSL protocol, they needed a security solution that could detect and mitigate DoS and DDoS attacks that are SSL encrypted.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is an intergovernmental organization spanning 187 Member States and Territories. It provides the framework for international meteorological cooperation worldwide. WMO facilitates the free and unrestricted exchange of data and information, products and services in real- or near-real time on matters relating to safety and security of society, economic welfare and the protection of the environment. It contributes to policy formulation in these areas at national and international levels. WMO needed a secure, redundant way for its Members to connect to a remote site using a public infrastructure. With this goal in mind, Vladislava Toukalek, acting chief of the WMO Information Technology division, determined that a multi-homing and WAN acceleration solution would help WMO achieve this goal in the most cost effective manner.

Telenet, Belgium’s largest cable services provider, needed to consolidate its IT infrastructure and adopt a virtualized environment. It also needed a solution that included both basic load balancing features and application performance monitoring. The company looked for a solution that would fit into its existing infrastructure in both its production site and its testing environment. As a leading cable operator with an MVNO offering, Telenet also needed to provide non-stop, premium services to more than one million subscribers (existing residential and business customers) as well deliver new services to new and existing customers.

New York Law School (NYLS), one of the oldest and most respected institutions in the United States, needed to ensure Internet connectivity to its highly demanding community of 1500 students and faculty in order to provide them the best possible Quality of Experience (QoE) in accessing their e-Learning application, web servers and hosted student email service. Network disruptions and connection failures were the reason that New York Law School became interested in implementing Radware's LinkProof solution. The School's course management system (Blackboard) is hosted and when the single link failed in the past, students could not see the teacher and the teacher could not teach. There was also a need for more robust Data Center infrastructure to allow for more hosting and future bandwidth growth. The School wanted more flexibility in negotiating with service providers to achieve lower costs and higher SLA commitments.

FireHost, a leading secure cloud hosting provider, was in need of a solution to secure its network infrastructure and provide real-time attack protection for its clients' mission-critical systems. The company is responsible for protecting sensitive data and brand reputations for companies of all sizes, including many Fortune 50 organizations. FireHost customers handle sensitive information such as credit card numbers and personal identifiable information that needs to remain secure and available. As an organization, they are known for meeting high traffic and high availability requirements for SaaS application providers and online retailers. As FireHost began to search for a seller to replace its existing infrastructure, they pursued a vendor that met their customers’ requirements for availability, performance, resiliency and security with scalable and cost-effective features that facilitate future growth.

Liquidity Services needed a consistent and cost-effective solution to ensure flexibility for its growing business. It needed a consolidated and virtual solution that would allow it to grow its business through company acquisitions and new marketplaces and accommodate the additional infrastructure requirements without increasing the data center footprint. As an all virtual platform with two data centers, Liquidity Services scales several applications including Exchange, Web applications and test and development. In addition, in order for Liquidity Services business to thrive, it is critical for the auction based sales websites to remain accessible to its clients and customers. For this reason, they required disaster recovery support and a load balancing solution that could handle any increased traffic.

O’Reilly Media, a leading publisher and disseminator of technology innovation, has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge technology development since 1978. The company has made it their critical goal to deliver their site in under 2 seconds. However, like all content-rich sites, the O’Reilly website is subject to the same performance pitfalls – everything from third-party widgets to data being served from multiple servers. A sub-2-second page load time is the current holy grail of web performance, and achieving this would keep the flow of thought seamless for users, meaning that they’re more likely to complete whatever online task they’ve started.

KPN, the leading telecommunications and IT service provider in the Netherlands, wanted to scale up its infrastructure to provide better, more predictable service to its business customers. With over 100 high-end business customers relying on its cloud services, KPN wanted to improve resiliency and scalability, as well as the ability to easily add new business customers and isolate between customer environments. Another key objective was lowering operational costs, which KPN wanted to achieve by consolidating multiple dedicated ADC devices into a virtualized ADC infrastructure.

Garanti Technology, a leader in banking and financial services, needed to ensure the confidentiality of customer information, consistent service availability, and fast application performance. As financial institutions like Garanti Technology offer more services through the web, they also inherit a new set of pressures. Applications need to be consistently available. Performance cannot waver. Security is vital. And confidentiality is not only expected, but it is essential. In order to remain a leader within the industry and protect the nature of their business, it was essential that Garanti Technology ensures customers' security and confidentiality and provide uninterrupted service.

Garanti Bank, Turkey’s second largest private bank, was in need of a virtualized Application Delivery Controller (ADC) solution for its advanced intranet and online banking services. The bank's goal was to consolidate its data center and focus on developing new online banking applications. The bank was looking for a solution that would allow it to maintain its current intranet and online banking services as well as develop new ones, all while ensuring customers enjoy a high-quality of experience whenever accessing its banking services and critical backend applications. Along with these goals, Garanti wanted to consolidate its data center in order to save costs and improve operations. The bank required a scalable, highly available solution that would deliver more, with less hardware and without compromising resiliency, performance or the customer experience.

MWEB Business, a division of MWEB, a leading ISP in South Africa, was faced with the challenge of running an efficient network for secure email that guarantees dependable, effective and scalable IT infrastructure. Among the solutions MWEB Business offers to its customers, the email service is the most challenging and complex. MWEB offers three email services to its business customers: Business Mail, for smaller businesses requiring multiple mailboxes branded with the company name; Mail Spooling, for businesses requiring a large number of mailboxes allowing for all e-mails to be collected on the MWEB server, downloaded all at once and distributed to all employees in the business; and Courier List Service, enabling sending of e-mails to multiple recipients at once via an easy-to-use Web based interface allowing customers full management of their email lists, recipient information, message content and mail batches. In order to provide its business customers with these mail services, MWEB has to offer 24/7 reliable, fast service with no delays, no spamming and secure mail without viruses. MWEB had to design a powerful, intricate network, with a physical and logical layout that could undertake these email tasks. Easy and high-speed network flow between servers was imperative. At the same time, it had to ensure that the network was simple to use and administer and scalable for future upgrades to accommodate its growing customer base while still maintaining quality service.

The customer, a Tier-1 Telecommunication Operator and Internet Service Provider, was facing ongoing growth of Internet traffic capacity resulting in increased load on its services and data centers. The growth in traffic was projected to intensely continue in the coming years. The challenge was to maintain best Quality of Experience (QoE) for end users and to ensure Service Level Agreement (SLA) and service continuity while addressing aggressive traffic capacity growth. The desired solution must eliminate capacity growth risks by providing additional room for growth of services, throughput and other metrics, as well as protecting the current investment in equipment, people and knowledge.

CSEA, under the supervision of the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance and the Italian Energy and Water Authority, plays a critical role in regulating the Italian energy sector. It collects funds from utility suppliers and distributors and reallocates these funds to electric, gas, and water sectors. Due to the critical nature of these services, CSEA must ensure 100% uptime of its customer-facing applications and networks during all operational scenarios, including in the face of a cyber-attack. The IT department at CSEA had relied on the native security capabilities of individual servers, resulting in a manual, resource-intensive process that made it difficult to implement infrastructure-wide security updates and policies. As CSEA upgraded its data centers to a modern, high-availability cluster infrastructure, it identified the need to deploy next-generation load balancing capabilities to drive data center scalability and allow new applications/services to be deployed without incurring performance degradation.

The Bâloise Group, which includes Basler Versicherungen and Bâloise Bank SoBa, needed to ensure 24/7 access to their shared website for their customers. The website contains crucial links that allow customers to log into their personal banking and financial services accounts. While the group had more than one Web Server Directed to the front page of the companies’ website, limiting the likelihood of a major outage, they wanted a solution that, in the event of a massive failure, would redirect visitors to a special emergency page with links to essential personal account services. They also needed to maintain their reputation in the marketplace, as an unreliable or intermittently inaccessible website could question the company’s overall credibility.

SK C&C designed a consolidation project to create a single highly-dense data center that provides web portal services to all fourteen subsidiaries of SK C&C. In consolidating their data centers, SK C&C wanted to achieve two main objectives – greater cost reduction, and operational simplicity. Cost reduction evolves from consolidation of hardware, software and other infrastructure equipment, and operational simplicity is achieved by managing fewer data centers, which helps meet compliance requirements more easily, handle security threats more efficiently and enhance business agility faster. For its web portal, SK C&C designed a single data center with multiple server farms, each housing multiple servers running different applications. To support the growth in traffic to the companies’ web portals, SK C&C set a target of 10Gbps throughput capacity for each server farm. One active ADC and one backup ADC with four physical ports of 10GE each were designed to handle servers load balancing needs.

The Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) is the UK’s central organization that processes applications for universities and colleges across the country. UCAS has been processing student applications online since 2002. Today, nearly all students are using the online application system with 98.5% submitting applications as of January 2006, using electronic means via www.ucas.com in comparison with 77.6% at the same point last year. The UCAS website was independently audited by ABC Electronic during November 2005. They verified that the total number of page impressions was 67,289,583 for that month. Due to the continuous surge in online applications UCAS deployed Radware’s APSolute Education solutions to guarantee the continuous, fault tolerant and secure operation of the UCAS website.

Myntex, a leading provider of trusted encryption solutions for mobile devices, was hit with a series of massive multi-vector DDoS attacks, resulting in severe service interruptions that negatively impacted its customers and the availability of their mobile devices. The company utilized standard security methods and protocols in conjunction with a DDoS solution from a provider that offered poor customer service and couldn’t prevent downtime. Attack campaigns could last a month and involved Advanced Persistent Denial of Service (APDoS) attacks, which included multi-vector burst DDoS attacks at massive sizes ranging from 40Gbps to 130Gbps. These attacks resulted in service disruptions for Myntex’s customers, causing communication downtime with their mobile devices.

KiwiCollection.com, a curated collection of more than 2,000 international luxury hotels and resorts, was facing a significant performance challenge. The website, which allows travelers to research and book their hotels online, was being served from a single data center in the US. This resulted in slow page load times and dramatically inconsistent user experiences for its worldwide audience. The issue became glaringly apparent when the CEO of Kiwi Collection, who is based overseas, was showing the site to a group of European partners and had to wait an embarrassingly long time for the site to load. It was clear that the company needed an acceleration solution.

Convergys, a global customer management firm, was facing a challenge in maintaining customer satisfaction and VoIP availability, which are critical to its success. With over 150 call centers in 31 countries and 90 VoIP recorders in its call system, Convergys needed a solution that could load balance over a million voice calls per day across multiple recordings. Any scenario where recordings were lost could result in customer dissatisfaction. To eliminate downtime from regular maintenance of its recorders, Convergys searched for a load balancing solution to support call recording for all of its call centers.

Aruba, a leading web hosting, email, and domain name registration company in Italy, was facing a significant challenge with the rise of DDoS attacks. The evolution of cyber-attacks in recent years had changed the info-security threat landscape, and Aruba's existing defenses were no longer sufficient. The company needed a solution that could not only mitigate DDoS attacks but also guarantee service availability for its two million customers and subscribers. The ideal solution would react immediately, with no false positive events, in cases of attacks blocking millions of packets per seconds of malicious traffic. It would also need to fit within the existing network topology and provide a scalable approach according to capacity planning constraints.