PERFORMANCE BRIEF

Test Summary
Bandwidth utilization is reduced by up to 99% AutoCAD 2010 network operations are 22 times faster

Autodesk AutoCAD 2010

Riverbed Steelhead Appliances Accelerate Autodesk AutoCAD 2010 and prior versions
AutoCAD provides state-of-the-art software used by leading architecture, engineering, and manufacturing firms across a wide range of industries. Firms use AutoCAD to design drawings and products and convey them visually to clients and collaborating parties. While the application provides an outstanding tool for organizations to standardize on for design purposes, the size of the drawing files often exceed Our files and data now move hundreds of megabytes in size on larger more than 70 times faster projects and can impact employees abilbetween offices, giving us ity to collaborate effectively. For firms with distributed offices or a global presence, sharing and collaborat Bruce Bartolf, CTO, Gensler ing on large CAD documents can often lead to significant delays in accessing drawings during normal file open and save operations. Many firms estimate that design engineers can spend one-quarter to one full hour a day on remote file operations, dramatically reducing the available working time per person. These delays impact productivity and overall time-to-market for customers, and ultimately, delivery to the client.

Testing scenario

AutoCAD operations were tested using the 2010 DWG format and the AUGI (AutoCAD User Group International) Gauge Benchmarks Net test. This kit is an independently-created test tool that executes the most common operations that the typical AutoCAD user would perform over the WAN, including opens, saves, and file edits. For more information, visit www.augi.com. The test environment to obtain the results described in this brief consisted of a WAN with a T1 connection, and 100 milliseconds of delay between locations. This scenario would be typical of a WAN link between Los Angeles and New York offices. This test was performed using Windows XP Professional as the client, Windows 2003 server, and AutoCAD 2010. NOTE: The 2007 DWG format used by some recent versions of AutoCAD and Civil3D scrambles the file data during save operations even if no changes have been made to a drawing. As a result, all data de-duplication technologies are unable to recognize the newly reorganized bytes of data. Customers using Autodesk products that use the 2007 DWG format will see deteriorated performance from the test results presented in this brief. The tests results described were obtained through testing with the 2010 DWG format. AutoCAD 2010 has resolved these issues, giving the strong results shown.
the ability to complete projects more quickly.
Steelhead-Enhanced AutoCAD 2010
Deploying Riverbed Steelhead products along with AutoCAD 2010 software can greatly reduce the amount of time required to open, save and transfer CAD documents across the wide area network (WAN). As a result, organizations can achieve LAN-like access speeds of centralized design documents and improve the collaboration and productivity of their design specialists. This gives firms the opportunity to source people on projects regardless of their location and enables real-time collaboration on designs across distributed teams. The Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) utilizes industry-leading data streamlining, transport streamlining, and application streamlining to provide data de-duplication, compression, transport layer and application protocol optimization. These optimizations can cut AutoCAD traffic on the WAN by as much as 99% and accelerate access times by up to 22x.

When we tried using Steelhead appliances, the results were dramatic. Transfers for an edited file took about two minutes the same amount of time that it takes us to access the file on a LAN.
Chris Pinckney, CIO, Psomas
PERFORMANCE BRIEF: Autodesk AutoCAD 2010
Deployment BENEFITS Deploying Riverbed in conjunction with AutoCAD 2010 provides multiple benefits, including: Productivity gains. By dramatically reducing the amount of time needed to complete basic CAD file operations, engineers can save an hour per day or more. Reduced bandwidth utilization. Steelhead appliances reduce bandwidth utilization from remote offices that rely on accessing CAD documents located on networked file servers in other offices, reducing IT costs. Better, faster collaboration. By reducing the time to transfer AutoCAD files by an order or magnitude or more, Steelhead appliances enable users in multiple offices to work collaboratively on large design documents. Work can be shifted to offices with downtime, or the right person can work on a task regardless of their location. Remote office server consolidation. LAN-like WAN performance means that server consolidation becomes a reality, and remote IT infrastructure can be reduced or eliminated. IT maintenance costs can be reduced, and the tasks of upgrading and patching servers can be greatly simplified.
AUGI Gauge Benchmark Net Test Operations (100 ms delay) Time to Complete (in seconds)
Warm Run Cold Run Without Steelhead More than 7x faster
AUGI Gauge Benchmark Net Test Operations (20 ms delay) Time to Complete (in seconds)
These results are based on the testing scenario presented in this paper. Your results may vary based on the conditions of your own network and the specifics of your own use cases.

Performance Improvements

Riverbed Steelhead appliances accelerate AutoCAD 2010 tasks in the AUGI Gauge Benchmark Net test (see sidebar) by 22x. Steelhead appliances can accelerate tasks up to 100x in certain scenarios see the reverse side for more detail. Simultaneously, bandwidth utilization was reduced by 99%, implying 99% of the data previously traversing the WAN was redundant information that was eliminated by Riverbeds scalable data referencing techniques.
Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) Features
RiOS software combines patent-pending data reduction, TCP optimization, application-level latency optimizations, and remote office file and management functionality. Together, these technologies provide a comprehensive solution for enterprise wide-area data services, scaling across a range of applications and network topologies to accelerate applications from 5 to 50 times, and sometimes up to 100x. RiOS consists of four key components: Data Streamlining RiOS data streamlining works across all TCP applications to reduce bandwidth consumption by 60% to 95%. Data streamlining works across Windows file sharing, Microsoft Office, Email (including MS Exchange and Lotus Notes), SSLencrypted applications, CAD, ERP, databases, and all other applications that use TCP, to ensure the same data is never sent more than once over the WAN. Data Streamlining also supports rules-based policy administration of optimization classes and packet marking for QoS and route control.

Transport Streamlining RiOS transport streamlining reduces the number of TCP packets required to transfer data by 65% to 98%. Transport streamlining overcomes TCP limitations by adapting transmission characteristics such as window scale, loss handling, congestion notification, and more. Transport streamlining also allows SSLencrypted applications to be accelerated as well. RiOS Transport streamlining also enables greater utilization of high bandwidth, high latency connections with HighSpeed TCP and MX-TCP. Application Streamlining RiOS application streamlining provides additional order-ofmagnitude application performance improvements by reducing application protocol chattiness up to 98% and minimizing application overhead. By minimizing application demands on the network such as application protocol round trips and required network connections, RiOS can provide massive throughput increases to applications including Windows file sharing (CIFS), Exchange (MAPI), Web (HTTP and HTTPS), and Database (MS-SQL). RiOS also includes important features for maximizing branch office productivity, such as file server capabilities and transparent pre-population of popular data.
Typical Deployment Architecture

DATA CENTER

Steelhead Windows File Server(s) Steelhead
Remote Office AutoCAD Workstations BRANCH OFFICE
Steelhead Products Accelerate a Broad Range of Applications
Most Likely range Peak Performance 5 5
File Sharing - Windows (CIFS) File Sharing - Unix (NFS) Mail - Exchange (MAPI) Mail - Notes SharePoint Web - HTTP, HTTPS, Intranet ERP - Oracle 11i, SAP NetWeaver FTP Backup & Replication Document Management Software Distribution - SMS Database - MS-SQL Database - Oracle SQL ERP - Fat Client 0

100x or more ->

About Riverbed
Riverbed Technology is the IT infrastructure performance company. The Riverbed family of wide area network (WAN) optimization solutions liberates businesses from common IT constraints by increasing application performance, enabling consolidation, and providing enterprise-wide network and application visibility all while eliminating the need to increase bandwidth, storage or servers. Thousands of companies with distributed operations use Riverbed to make their IT infrastructure faster, less expensive and more responsive. Additional information about Riverbed (NASDAQ: RVBD) is available at www.riverbed.com
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Riverbed Technology 199 Fremont Street San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: +Fax: +www.riverbed.com Riverbed Technology Pte. Ltd. 391A Orchard Road #22-06/10 Ngee Ann City Tower A Singapore 238873 Tel: +65 6508-7400
Riverbed Technology Ltd. Farley Hall, London Road Binfield Bracknell Berks RG42 4EU Tel: +44 (0) Riverbed Technology K.K. Shiba-Koen Plaza Building 9F 3-6-9, Shiba, Minato-ku Tokyo, Japan 105-0014 Tel: +5419 1990

2009 Riverbed Technology. All rights reserved. Portions of Riverbeds products are protected under Riverbed patents, as well as patents pending. Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, RiOS, Interceptor, Think Fast, the Riverbed logo, Mazu, Profiler, Atlas and Cascade are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed Technology All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

PB-AC051809

1 PERFORMANCE BRIEF

Autodesk AutoCAD 2010

Riverbed Steelhead Products Accelerate Autodesk AutoCAD 2010 and prior versions
AutoCAD provides state-of-the-art software used by leading architecture, engineering, and manufacturing firms across a wide range of industries. Firms use AutoCAD to design drawings and products and convey them visually to clients and collaborating parties. While the application provides an outstanding tool for organizations to standardize on for design purposes, the size of the drawing files often exceed hundreds of megabytes in size on larger projects and can impact employees ability to collaborate effectively. For firms with distributed offices or a global presence, sharing and collaborating on large CAD documents can often lead to significant delays in accessing drawings during normal file open and save operations. Many firms estimate that design engineers can spend onequarter to one full hour a day on remote file operations, dramatically reducing the available working time per person. These delays impact productivity and overall time-to-market for customers, and ultimately, delivery to the client.

Test Summary

Bandwidth utilization is reduced by up to 99% AutoCAD 2010 network operations are 22 times faster
Our files and data now move more than 70 times faster between offices, giving us the ability to complete projects more quickly. Bruce Bartolf, CTO, Gensler
TESTING PARAMETERS AutoCAD operations were tested using the 2010 DWG format and the AUGI (AutoCAD User Group International) Gauge Benchmarks Net test. This kit is an independently-created test tool that executes the most common operations that the typical AutoCAD user would perform over the WAN, including opens, saves, and file edits. For more information, visit www.augi.com. The test environment to obtain the results described in this brief consisted of a WAN with a T1 connection, and 100 milliseconds of delay between locations. This scenario would be typical of a WAN link between Los Angeles and New York offices. This test was performed using Windows XP Professional as the client, Windows 2003 server, and AutoCAD 2010. NOTE: The 2007 DWG format used by some recent versions of AutoCAD and Civil3D scrambles the file data during save operations even if no changes have been made to a drawing. As a result, all data de-duplication technologies are unable to recognize the newly reorganized bytes of data. Customers using Autodesk products that use the 2007 DWG format will see deteriorated performance from the test results presented in this brief. The tests results described were obtained through testing with the 2010 DWG format. AutoCAD 2010 has resolved these issues, giving the strong results shown.
Steelhead-Enhanced AutoCAD 2010
Deploying Riverbed Steelhead products along with AutoCAD 2010 software can greatly reduce the amount of time required to open, save and transfer CAD documents across the wide area network (WAN). As a result, organizations can achieve LAN-like access speeds of centralized design documents and improve the collaboration and productivity of their design specialists. This gives firms the opportunity to source people on projects regardless of their location and enables real-time collaboration on designs across distributed teams. The Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) utilizes industry-leading data streamlining, transport streamlining, and application streamlining to provide data de-duplication, compression, transport layer and application protocol optimization. These optimizations can cut AutoCAD traffic on the WAN by as much as 99% and accelerate access times by up to 22x.

When we tried using Steelhead products, the results were dramatic. Transfers for an edited file took about two minutes the same amount of time that it takes us to access the file on a LAN. Chris Pinckney,

CIO, Psomas

PERFORMANCE BRIEF: Autodesk AutoCAD 2010
DEPLOYMENT BENEFITS Deploying Riverbed in conjunction with AutoCAD 2010 provides multiple benefits, including: Productivity gains. By dramatically reducing the amount of time needed to complete basic CAD file operations, engineers can save an hour per day or more. Reduced bandwidth utilization. Steelhead products reduce bandwidth utilization from remote offices that rely on accessing CAD documents located on networked file servers in other offices, reducing IT costs. Better, faster collaboration. By reducing the time to transfer AutoCAD files by an order or magnitude or more, Steelhead products enable users in multiple offices to work collaboratively on large design documents. Work can be shifted to offices with downtime, or the right person can work on a task regardless of their location. Remote office server consolidation. LAN-like WAN performance means that server consolidation becomes a reality, and remote IT infrastructure can be reduced or eliminated. IT maintenance costs can be reduced, and the tasks of upgrading and patching servers can be greatly simplified.

Performance Improvements

Riverbed Steelhead products accelerate AutoCAD 2010 tasks in the AUGI Gauge Benchmark Net test (see sidebar) by 22x. Steelhead products can accelerate tasks up to 100x in certain scenarios see the reverse side for more detail. Simultaneously, bandwidth utilization was reduced by 99%, implying 99% of the data previously traversing the WAN was redundant information that was eliminated by Riverbeds scalable data referencing techniques.
Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) Features
RiOS software combines patent-pending data reduction, TCP optimization, applicationlevel latency optimizations, and remote office file and management functionality. Together, these technologies provide a comprehensive solution for enterprise wide-area data services, scaling across a range of applications and network topologies to accelerate applications from 5 to 50 times, and sometimes up to 100x. RiOS consists of four key components:
Data Streamlining RiOS data streamlining works across all TCP applications to reduce bandwidth consumption by 60% to 95%. Data streamlining works across Windows file sharing, Microsoft Office, Email (including MS Exchange and Lotus Notes), SSLencrypted applications, CAD, ERP, databases, and all other applications that use TCP, to ensure the same data is never sent more than once over the WAN. Data Streamlining also supports rules-based policy administration of optimization classes and packet marking for QoS and route control. Transport Streamlining RiOS transport streamlining reduces the number of TCP packets required to transfer data by 65% to 98%.

Transport streamlining overcomes TCP limitations by adapting transmission characteristics such as window scale, loss handling, congestion notification, and more. Transport streamlining also allows SSL-encrypted applications to be accelerated as well. RiOS Transport streamlining also enables greater utilization of high bandwidth, high latency connections with High-Speed TCP and MX-TCP.
Application Streamlining RiOS application streamlining provides additional order-of-magnitude application performance
improvements by reducing application protocol chattiness up to 98% and minimizing application overhead. By minimizing application demands on the network such as application protocol round trips and required network connections, RiOS can provide massive throughput increases to applications including Windows file sharing (CIFS), Exchange (MAPI), Web (HTTP and HTTPS), and Database (MS-SQL). RiOS also includes important features for maximizing branch office productivity, such as file server capabilities and transparent prepopulation of popular data.

About Riverbed

Riverbed is the IT performance company. WAN optimization solutions from Riverbed liberate businesses from common IT constraints by increasing application performance, enabling consolidation, and providing enterprise-wide network and application visibility all while eliminating the need to increase bandwidth, storage or servers.
Riverbed Technology, Inc. 199 Fremont Street San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: (415) 247-8800 www.riverbed.com
Riverbed Technology Ltd. Farley Hall, London Rd., Level 2 Binfield Bracknell. Berks RG42 4EU Tel: +354910
Riverbed Technology Pte. Ltd. 391A Orchard Road #22-06/10 Ngee Ann City Tower A Singapore 238873 Tel: +65 6508-7400
Riverbed Technology K.K. Shiba-Koen Plaza, Bldg. 9F 3-6-9, Shiba, Minato-ku Tokyo, Japan 105-0014 Tel: +5419 1990
Copyright 2010 Riverbed Technology. All Rights Reserved. Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, RiOS, Interceptor, Cascade, Riverbed Cascade, Think Fast, the Riverbed logo, Mazu, and Profiler are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed. All other trademarks mentioned in this website are the property of their respective owners. The trademarks and logos displayed on this website may not be used without the prior written consent of Riverbed or their respective owners.