As any user of the internet knows, slow data transfer speeds are the bane of productivity. It is the same for major corporations. Awareness of the problem – and the solutions – has driven the rapid growth of Replify.
The standard approach to boosting data transfer speeds within a Wide Area Network (WAN) is to upgrade the hardware. But for a large corporation to roll-out hardware upgrades across its global network costs a fortune and will typically take between one and three years.
Replify has a solution that is simpler and cheaper: accelerator software. This software, written in-house, utilises spare capacity within the IT hardware system – the CPUs and memory – of corporations, to speed-up data transmission. The approach works for data transmission on both fixed line networks and from mobile connections, for example when staff are working from home.
“This is a massive cost saving,” says Kevin Donaghy, chief executive and co-founder of Replify. “Managing a software solution is much easier and can be managed from a corporation’s own headquarters. And, because it is faster to implement, they get a return on their investment much quicker.”
Replify is still a young business: it was started in September 2007. But it benefits from a strong management team, two of whom previously founded, managed and sold the successful Swan Labs company – which provided hardware solutions to accelerate data transmission. Some of the proceeds from the multi-million pound sale of Swan Labs have now gone into Replify.
The executive directors of Replify have strong technical skills learned at Queens University – Donaghy has a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering, an MSc in Computational Science and a BSc in Mathematics. The team also has the committed backing of a major private equity investor.
Having established a firm base, the future looks good for the Belfast company. “We are now partnering some of the largest solutions providers, including HP and Dell,” explains Kevin. “We are looking to strengthen our sales capacity in order to obtain new customers.”
Having already made its mark with data acceleration, the company is clearly set to accelerate its own success.