A10 Lowers Brainshark’s IT Costs While Improving Scalability and Utilization Rates

• Cybersecurity & Privacy - Application Security
• Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
• Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software

• Professional Service
• Software

• Business Operation
• Sales & Marketing

• Cybersecurity
• Remote Collaboration
• Remote Control

• Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
• Software Design & Engineering Services
• System Integration

In the last year, Brainshark has seen huge growth in the amount of bandwidth the business is consuming, with an increase in traffic from approximately 40 Mbps to peaks at 100 Mbps. Brainshark’s Website also needs to be available at all times, so that when a customer sends a link to a presentation, viewers can watch that presentation on-demand. Brainshark’s network is composed of 64-bit Microsoft Windows 2008 servers, streaming servers and media servers that enable customers to record audio files for their video presentations. Brainshark had been using another vendor’s appliances to provide server load balancing, as well as Web application firewall services. These devices had gone to end of life status and Brainshark’s IT team had to make a decision on whether to “re-up” with them or go with another vendor. Brainshark had two appliances in their production environment, additional units in the development lab and one in the disaster recovery facility. Brainshark deployed lower end models for the disaster recovery and development environments, and a pair of higher-end units in the production environment. Although this approach allowed them to stay within budget, it also added complexity when troubleshooting any issues that occurred, because if something broke in the lab, it was difficult to be certain that the problems weren’t platform-specific. In addition, when technical problems occurred with the equipment and the IT team had to place a support call, they often did not receive the level of responsiveness and assistance required.

Brainshark, launched in 1999, is a software as a service (SaaS) provider that allows customers to access its unique business communications platform. Brainshark’s customers can upload previously-created presentations, such as Microsoft PowerPoint® files, to the company’s Website at www.brainshark.com. At that point, Brainshark converts the files into an online video presentation format (that’s also mobile-ready), and the customer can then choose to add audio narration to the presentation. Once the presentation is finished, the customer can share the video with an audience, and those viewers can then watch the presentation anytime and anywhere – on their computer, iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or other smartphones. Brainshark enables customers to increase the impact of their business communications while reducing the cost of training and marketing. For these reasons, the software is popular in sales, marketing, channels and HR departments, with more than 1500 enterprise companies (including one-third of those listed on the Fortune 100) as customers.

Brainshark chose to install Imperva for its Web Application Firewall (WAF) appliance, and it was Imperva who recommended A10 Networks’ Application Delivery Controllers, which are new generation server load balancers. By using Imperva’s WAFs and the A10 ADC distributed denial of service (DDoS) functionality to protect against SYN Floods, “Ping of Death”, TCP Syn-Frag, and other common threats, Brainshark was able to build a network with multiple layers of security. Due to the lower pricing and higher performance of the A10 ADC, Brainshark’s IT team was able to make a uniform purchase of A10 ADCs for both their development and production environments. This meant the labs would have the same model of server load balancer as the production networks, thus simplifying troubleshooting. The A10 ADCs entry-level 64-bit appliance, delivered an affordable option that made things easier for Long and his team. “From our standpoint, we have the same model of server load balancer in our different network environments, and this just makes things much easier for us because we don’t have to worry about whether there’s a difference between this lower end product and that higher-end product,” said Long. “We’ve got the exact same features in all of our locations.” Another advantage of the A10 ADC is its powerful aFleX Layer 7 scripting tool. aFleX uses the industry-standard TCL programming language to enable customers to customize Application Delivery, for example, localizing content, optimizing data center resources, or in Brainshark’s case, merging namespaces and providing a single URL for the Website’s customers.

• By replacing its previous solution with the A10 ADC, Brainshark got a solid load balancing system capable of handling its rapid traffic growth, while offering superior performance, high scalability and availability, and powerful scripting tools to provide the flexibility for whatever comes up in the future.
• The A10 ADCs entry-level 64-bit appliance, delivered an affordable option that made things easier for Long and his team. They have the same model of server load balancer in their different network environments, simplifying troubleshooting.
• The A10 ADC’s aFleX scripting tool allowed Brainshark to integrate two URLs, successfully redirecting requests for the main corporate Website to the simplified URL, making it appear that everything is happening in one place.

• Brainshark saw an increase in traffic from approximately 40 Mbps to peaks at 100 Mbps.
• A Brainshark video presentation is created every 3 minutes worldwide, and a presentation is viewed every 2.5 seconds.