Exinda Assures Performance of Critical Video Conferencing Apps for CTI Foods
Exinda, a global provider of next-generation WAN optimization and Network Control solutions, today announced that CTI Foods, a manufacturer and distributor of prepared food products for the largest and best restaurant and quick food service companies in the world, has implemented solutions from Exinda to assure critical application SLAs, including high-definition video conferencing and voice over IP services between its North American manufacturing plants.
Initially, CTI Foods needed to implement a video conferencing solution to better connect its seven U.S.-based manufacturing plants, including two from a recent acquisition. However, doing so without a way to optimize the network and control other key applications was unthinkable, especially when video conferencing needed to “share the pipe” with other critical applications, such as voice, e-mail, ERP applications, Citrix, Business Intelligence reporting, and file sharing between remote locations and the company’s centralized data center in Texas, according to John Flick , Director of Information Technology at CTI Foods.
“Video conferencing can be a bandwidth hog and will generally use whatever you have available, so we would not be able to support it at all without Exinda, especially at some of our locations with lower-bandwidth connections,” Flick said. “With Exinda, we can conduct multi-person team meetings via high-definition video conferencing without sacrificing other critical applications like voice, Citrix and ERP. Exinda has allowed us to communicate with our new locations easily, making their integration much more effective.”
Since implementing Exinda, the company has also seen significant improvement in file-sharing speeds, increasing productivity across its locations, Flick said. All of CTI Foods’ files are stored centrally in the company’s Texas data center, and access to some of the larger files had been restricted by lower-bandwidth connections to the company’s MPLS network.
“Files accessed remotely could take a while to load, and some of them can be large, upwards of 100MB,” Flick said. “Since we’ve implemented Exinda, employees are able to open files quickly, making it feel like they are local to the user and improving their experience.”
“Exinda is pleased to work with companies like CTI Foods to provide both the traffic management capabilities they need alongside user experience assurance for their most critical applications in a single, integrated solution,” said Brendan Reid , vice president of product marketing at Exinda. “With the visibility into their network provided by Exinda, CTI Foods can effectively prioritize the applications that are critical to their business, while not allowing video to overrun their network.”
About Exinda
Exinda is a leading global supplier of WAN optimization and Network Control solutions. Exinda enables organizations to assure a predictable user experience for strategic business applications through policy-based WAN optimization and Internet Control that intelligently allocate network bandwidth and optimize traffic based on the priorities of the business. The company has helped more than 2,500 organizations in over 80 countries worldwide assure application performance, improve the end-user experience, contain recreational applications and reduce network operating costs for the IT executive. For more information, please visit http://www.exinda.com.
About CTI Foods
CTI Foods is a culinary-driven company that offers a diverse range of custom food solutions to the foodservice and restaurant industries, including raw and pre-cooked protein, soups and sauces and dehydrated beans. CTI Foods has seven state-of-the-art food processing facilities and has over 1,000 employees at its California, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Texas locations. For more information call (800) 421-7844 or visit their website at www.ctifoods.com.