Fenwal Blood Technologies Increase Scalability and Performance of Microsoft solutions with Barracuda Load Balancers
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Barracuda Load Balancer Model 340
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft SharePoint
- Office Communication Server
Tech Stack
- Load Balancing
- High Availability (HA)
- SSL Offloading
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Cybersecurity & Privacy - Intrusion Detection
- Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Facility Management
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Fenwal Blood Technologies, Inc., based in Illinois, is a pioneer and global leader in the development of products that improve the safety and availability of blood. Founded in 1949, the company developed the first flexible, disposable container for blood collection. Today, Fenwal continues to lead in innovations that advance the practice of blood transfusion, making life-saving blood therapies available to medical professionals and patients worldwide. The company has a rich history of over 60 years and has experienced steady growth, necessitating the need for scalable and reliable IT infrastructure to support its global operations.
The Challenge
Fenwal Blood Technologies faced the challenge of scaling their Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communication Server (OCS) infrastructure to support over 6,000 global users. They needed to ensure around-the-clock uptime and improve data center manageability. The key challenge was selecting the right mix of technology platforms that maximized performance while minimizing costs. Additionally, they aimed to build a new data center from the ground up to keep pace with their continued market success and growth.
The Solution
Fenwal Blood Technologies turned to Barracuda Networks for a load balancing solution to scale their Microsoft infrastructure. They deployed three Barracuda Load Balancer Model 340s to support their needs. Two of these were configured in a high availability (HA) pair to distribute traffic to internal networks, while the third was placed in the DMZ to handle incoming traffic. This setup allowed them to efficiently manage Microsoft Exchange, Office Communication Server, and SharePoint traffic. The Barracuda Load Balancer 340s provided advanced load balancing features, including direct server return and Layer 7 cookie persistence, along with SSL offloading. This solution enabled Fenwal to handle more than 10,000 SharePoint and Exchange requests per hour and over 1,000 OCS requests, ensuring high availability and scalability.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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