Expand Networks Accelerates Business Critical Applications at Darlington Building Society by up to 2000% to Increase User Productivity

Expand Networks, a leader in application acceleration over the wide area

network (WAN) and recently positioned in the Gartner´s

Leaders Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controllers 2007, has

announced that Darlington Building Society, a leading mutual provider of

housing finance, savings products and financial services, has deployed

the Expand Compass platform to accelerate various applications over the

WAN and enhance the investment in its MPLS network.
Darlington Building Society has 13 branches across County Durham, the

Tees Valley and North Yorkshire and made a significant investment in a

new MPLS network to provide more control over resources and form the

basis of its disaster recovery strategy. However, the migration to MPLS

didn´t run as smoothly as expected as specific

financial and mortgage applications such as Tietoenator´s

Summit and Activate, and other applications including Microsoft Excel

and Word underperformed in the new MPLS environment.
After evaluating products from Expand and Packeteer in the MPLS

environment, Darlington Building Society selected the Expand Compass

platform for its superior ability to accelerate all applications and

safeguard the investment in MPLS.
"With the introduction of the MPLS network, we

discovered that applications were running slower than with our previous

256k kilostream links and business efficiency was being affected," said Paul Gillson, Computer Development Manager, Darlington Building

Society.
With the deployment of the Expand Compass platform, the integrated WAN

Optimisation capabilities of compression and acceleration has

significantly improved the reliability and response times of all the

applications for Darlington Building Society. Byte level caching

features have increased network capacity by 350% and the average

acceleration rate is 250% with peaks of up to 2000%. As a result, full

system and network back up is now concluded 20 hours faster than

previously, greatly easing the disaster recovery process. ExpandView

management tools were used for effective and simple deployment and in

addition, Expand´s transparency mode enables

QoS to remain in place to allow the Society full use of its MPLS provider´s

services.
"Expand has allowed us to protect the

investment in MPLS and control the network more effectively," continued Paul Gillson. "The Expand Compass

platform has helped us to cope with network demands and conduct our

business more professionally."
"MPLS help organisations simplify the network

by providing a more efficient way to manage applications and

transfer information between locations but attention must be paid to the

effects of application performance for remote users," said Adam Davison, VP Sales EMEA, Expand Networks. "The

Expand Compass ensures MPLS reaches its potential and sets the standard

for the performance of applications over the WAN."
Note About the Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted December 2007 by Gartner, Inc. and is

reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation

of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner´s

analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that

marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor

product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise

technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and

is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all

warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including

any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Darlington Building Society
Darlington Building Society (www.darlington.co.uk)

was formed one hundred and fifty two years ago in 1856. Today it is a

thriving, diversified provider of personal financial services with 13

full branches, a mortgage shop and 3 community branches. The Society

offers more full service branches in its operating area than any other

mutual financial firm.
Darlington Building Society employs 150 staff, has total assets under

management exceeding £700m, administers over

120,000 accounts on behalf of members and customers and in the last

financial year, gross mortgage lending reached a record £158m.
About Expand Networks
Expand Networks is the pioneer and leader in helping organizations

simplify their IT infrastructure while delivering remote offices fast

reliable and secure access to networked applications. This results in

improved user productivity and cost-effective IT management. Expand

offers a multi-service integrated platform that ensures superior

performance for any application over any network. From its headquarters

in Roseland, NJ and its global locations, Expand Networks (www.expand.com)

serves more than 3,000 enterprise customers and over 36,000 units

installed including: American Express, Bacardi USA, BMW, Continental

Airlines, Carr America, Colgate, Elizabeth Arden, Reed Exhibitions

Target and United States Department of Defense.
Expand Networks, Accelerator, Expand Compass, ExpandView are

trademarks of Expand Networks. All other trademarks are the property of

their respective owners