I have had hands-on experience with the initial setup of Steelhead, particularly in deploying it for a banking system in Pakistan. The deployment involved two cities, Karachi and Larkana, with around sixteen to eighteen branches. To start, we needed licenses for both Steelhead devices, crucial for optimizing traffic. Understanding the volume of traffic between the nodes is essential. For instance, if there is a 1 GB traffic requirement, we need to select a license capable of optimizing that volume. While the claim is that Steelhead can optimize up to 90%, we typically set realistic expectations, aiming for 60-70% optimization. Choosing the right device, analyzing its processing capabilities, ensuring hardware compatibility with the selected license, and understanding the specific requirements are key aspects of the setup process. The initial installation of Steelhead is more about careful planning than complex configuration. The trickiest part is deciding on the right device, box, and license. Figuring out which box suits the purpose and which license can handle the expected traffic volume is crucial. Once that is sorted, the configuration itself is relatively straightforward, mostly done through a user-friendly GUI. The key for engineers is understanding how to analyze the graphs and reports. During deployment, the focus shifts to selecting the appropriate box, software version, and license. The reports become essential for ongoing optimization. The full installation of Steelhead typically takes around one day. However, I usually monitor the system for about a week after deployment to gather mature data and generate comprehensive reports. The deployment of Steelhead is a team effort, not a solo task. Typically, it involves a presales person and a technician, especially if we are setting up in a data center. The infrastructure management and operations team, including system, network, and software teams, are also part of the process. In total, around nine to ten people might be involved, depending on the specific needs.

Setting up Steelhead is straightforward. You place it in the rack, connect it to your console, and plug in the IP address for the management interface. It only takes a little time to get everything running. You will need some additional configuration to optimize encrypted traffic, but the initial configuration is simple. 

The initial setup is hard since you need to have the configurations and protocols. At one stage of the configuration of the initial setup, the solution said that it didn’t recognize my business. The initial setup needs to be assisted on the mobile device.

The deployment needs some basic information like an IP. We have a centralized software configuration that gives our customers access to the solution. We also do the crosscheck as part of the support during deployment for our customers.

The initial setup was very straight forward, we followed the initial advice of Teneo to start with and then went back and optimized to our own policy over time, as we found better ways of optimizing certain traffic.

The initial setup is easy. The deployment takes eight hours time. 

I have 15 years of experience with this product. When I first did the install it was hard, but now it is very easy.

It was straightforward.

The initial setup is very easy. 

The initial setup is not difficult. It's very simple and quite straightforward. A company shouldn't have trouble setting it up.

When the product was originally installed, it was not the lead. Therefore, I cannot speak to how long the deployment itself took.

We only have just a few people on staff that really manage the infrastructure at the moment. We don't need a big team.

I was not there for the initial setup, but I did replace one remote office steelhead and that was easy to do

The initial setup is very straightforward. Give the unit an IP address for management, an IP address for your WAN segment and place it inline between your local network and your WAN. Steelhead will automatically find peers and set up peering.

It's straightforward to implement.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It is not complex. It is a very simple device. It is like an L2 device, and you can easily install it into a network. It can be deployed in inline mode, but there are some methods for deploying this appliance into a network. The first is the physical, meaning inline mode. The second is virtual. And the third is the server-side, where you can deploy this device with the switch nearest to the server, and the client-side is deployed in in-line mode.

Every SteelHead deployment always involves deploying two appliances. One appliance on its own will not work because SteelHead always works in pairs. If your organization has five branch offices, and one is the data center, you will need to deploy a SteelHead in each branch office to get the benefit of WAN optimization. 

The number of people needed for deployment depends on how far apart the locations are. If the locations are not very far apart, one person can fully deploy the product. If there are distant remote locations, you will need a person in each location.

The deployment time is three to four hours, maximum. It's very easy to install. You only need to run some commands, then go to the UI and do some configuration.

The deployment of the Riverbed products is very easy and straightforward.

It was straightforward.