AVID Group Supports Explosive Project Demand With Packeteer iShared Systems.Leading Civil Engineering Firm Realizes Eight-Month ROI (Return On Investment) The monetary benefits derived from having spent money on developing or revising a system. In the IT world, there are more ways to compute ROI than Carter has liver pills (and for those of you who never heard of that expression, it means a lot). in Productivity With Collaborative/Centralized File Solution CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Packeteer[R] (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :PKTR), the global leader in WAN Application Optimization, today announced that fast-growing civil engineering firm AVID Group, based in Palm Harbor, FL, is deploying its iShared[TM] branch office IT services appliance to support an explosion of residential, commercial and public sector projects requiring collaboration between distributed, multi-disciplinary teams. The iShared solution eliminates the need for expensive, standalone Microsoft Exchange Messaging and groupware software for Windows from Microsoft. Exchange Server is an Internet-compliant e-mail system that runs under Windows NT/2000 and Windows Server 2003. It can be accessed by Web browsers, the Exchange client, versions of Outlook and the earlier Windows Inbox. e-mail servers and tape drive backup solutions for each branch location. By establishing a common distributed file structure company-wide with the iShared systems, AVID Group is centralizing and synchronizing shared files that dramatically improve the productivity of project managers and CAD technicians. The recent real estate explosion, combined with a reputation for being a truly responsive and energetic land development consulting firm Noun 1. consulting firm - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee consulting company business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a , has resulted in rapid growth for AVID Group. With 150 employees Co forecast to triple in the next three years Co residential, commercial and public sector specialists are distributed between headquarters in Palm Harbor and branch locations throughout Florida to provide a host of strategic services that include engineering, planning, landscape architecture, environmental services The various combinations of scientific, technical, and advisory activities (including modification processes, i.e., the influence of manmade and natural factors) required to acquire, produce, and supply information on the past, present, and future states of space, atmospheric, and surveying. Prior to deploying iShared systems, AVID deployed IP-Sec virtual private networks that were supporting independent file servers running backup and administrative tasks at each location. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. AVID's IT Manager, Pete Nuffer, this approach proved to be problematic for several reasons. "Our IT staff was losing 30 to 40 percent of their work week because of the travel time involved in supporting the branch offices," Nuffer said. "Often times, tape backups alone could consume three hours per onsite visit. But the bigger issue was the use of separate, independent file structures in each branch. Not only did we have to perform copy scripts for backups across the wide area network at times, but if data volumes got above 50 Gigabytes, backups became totally impractical since we are using business DSL connections in a couple of our remote offices." In addition to relying on Microsoft office Microsoft's primary desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Depending on the package, it includes some combination of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook along with various Internet and other utilities. applications, AVID is a heavy user of CAD products. "Because CAD products are so customizable, our CAD technicians and project teams were working on collaborative files that were getting out of synch due to copying different file directories. This clogged up our email system with multi-version file transfers Co some of which were hundreds of megabytes in size Co and created delays in project turnaround times since various staff members would waste valuable time looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. the right version of a file," Nuffer added. To overcome this distributed file structure problem, AVID is deploying Packeteer's iShared systems at all of its branch office facilities. In addition to integrating wide area file services Wide Area File Services (WAFS) products allow remote office users to access and share files globally at LAN speeds over the WAN. Distributed enterprises that deploy WAFS solutions are able to consolidate storage to corporate datacenters, eliminating the need to backup and manage (WAFS WAFS Wide-Area File Services (storage technology) WAFS Wide Area File System (storage technology) WAFS Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron WAFS Women Against Fantasy Sports (blog) ) and WAN optimization WAN optimization products seek to accelerate a broad range of applications accessed by distributed enterprise users via eliminating redundant transmissions, staging data in local caches, compressing and prioritizing data, and streamlining chatty protocols (e.g., CIFS).. technologies that accelerate application performance and provide bandwidth-enhancing compression to help customers avoid expensive network upgrades, these appliances utilize a unique distributed file system Software that keeps track of files stored across multiple networks. When the data are requested, it converts the file names into the physical location of the file so it can be found. that features lock manager, journaling and recovery techniques. As a result, file updates made by one user will not conflict with updates made by any other user, and updated files are available to all users across the network. The distributed file system technology proved to be a critical factor in AVID's decision to deploy iShared systems. "We surveyed all project managers and CAD technicians, asking how much time was spent per week hunting for the correct version of a file on which they needed to work," explained Nuffer. "When you factor in the billable rates of these users, anything that cuts down on this non-productive time carries a significant return-on-investment. And in the case of the iShared systems, we've calculated an eight month ROI in increased productivity alone." On top of the productivity improvements afforded by the iShared systems, AVID is also realizing significant capital equipment savings as well. "Having installed the iShared systems, we've done away with the need for tape drive backups and independent Exchange servers at each branch," said Nuffer. "And because we've successfully centralized and synchronized our Microsoft Office applications and AutoDesk files between all locations, we've dramatically cut down on our IT resource commitments at each branch to free up our time for other strategic IT issues. In the long run, this is going to help us keep pace with the incredible growth projected for the company." According to Nuffer, AVID Group evaluated several "WAN Optimization" technologies: "We found most competitive offerings focused on streamlining the chattiness chat·ty adj. chat·ti·er, chat·ti·est 1. Inclined to chat; friendly and talkative. 2. Full of or in the style of light informal talk: a chatty letter. of TCP/IP TCP/IP in full Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol Standard Internet communications protocols that allow digital computers to communicate over long distances. and application acceleration. The iShared systems held their own on this front. But because of the tremendous amount of collaboration we do here at AVID, file consistency and centralization were our biggest keys. And this is where the iShared systems came out way ahead." About AVID Group As a multidisciplinary consulting firm, AVID Group provides comprehensive land development services to developers, corporations, government agencies and land owners. AVID's services include civil engineering, land planning, traffic/transportation engineering, landscape architecture, environmental sciences and surveying. The firm has offices in Tampa Bay Tampa Bay, inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, 25 mi (40 km) long and 7 to 12 mi (11.3–19 km) wide, W Fla., separated from the Gulf by numerous small islands; it receives the Hillsborough River. St. , Jacksonville, and Orlando, FL. For more information, visit http://www.avidgroup.com. About Packeteer Packeteer, Inc. (NASDAQ:PKTR), is the global market leader in WAN Optimization and Application Traffic Management for wide area networks. Deployed at more than 7,000 companies in 50 countries, Packeteer solutions empower IT organizations with patented network visibility, control, and acceleration capabilities delivered through a family of intelligent, scalable appliances. For more information, contact Packeteer at +1 (408) 873-4400 or visit the company's website at http://www.packeteer.com. Safe Harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. Clause The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding Packeteer's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, express or implied statements regarding future revenues, revenue growth and profitability, spending levels by existing and prospective customers, the markets for our products, new product development, liquidity and macro economic conditions. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to Packeteer as of the date hereof. Packeteer assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors including the perceived need for our products, our ability to convince potential customers of our value proposition, the costs of competitive solutions, continued capital spending capital spending Spending for long-term assets such as factories, equipment, machinery, and buildings that permits the production of more goods and services in future years. by prospective customers and macro economic conditions. These and other risks relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc Packeteer's business are set forth in Packeteer's Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2006, and Packeteer's Form 10-Qs and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Packeteer, iShared are trademarks or registered trademarks of Packeteer, Inc. All other products and services are the trademarks of their respective owners. |
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