ImageStream Testimonials

ImageStream has thousands of customers in over 90 countries, with installations on seven continents. From Antarctica to Alaska, Pakistan to Paris, New York to New Delhi, ImageStream customers have been telling the world about their great experiences using ImageStream products for over 10 years. Below you will find some of the testimonials submitted by ImageStream customers. Please contact ImageStream for reference accounts that you can contact.

NASplex (www.nasplex.com) provides the very best dedicated server hosting available anywhere today. When you host with NASplex, you get me—Joey Messenger—owner and CEO of NASplex, in addition to our top-flight technical staff. I take personal interest in every client, and I'm obsessed with providing our customers with the very best service in the business.

NASplex is pleased to partner with ImageStream as a strategic equipment supplier, because they give us the personalized service that we need. We have worked with the "big boys," and they charge big premiums for putting their name on the box. They have also become institutions that are too large and too inflexible to serve our needs.

In contrast, ImageStream is open and flexible. It's exciting for our team to be able to work directly with a manufacturer to deliver new solutions for our network architecture, technical support, and NOC-related services.

Discerning customers always appreciate the NASplex difference. We operate a state-of-the-art, industrial grade data center with enterprise class servers in a tightly controlled, closely managed environment. We are commited to building the very best carrier grade network available, and ImageStream's products, design expertise, and experience are helping us make that happen.

Joey Messenger, CEO
NASplex

A few years ago we selected an ImageStream Rebel router to replace a routing function in a piece of aerospace test equipment used with the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.

The routers were selected based on capability and price.

The routers have been deployed around the world, and have been performing flawlessly. The routers have to live in some fairly extreme environments and we have had no problems even though the routers are commercial grade equipment.

ImageStream technical support is excellent as well. When we were evaluating the routers, we discovered that we needed to implement an obscure function of the the Cisco HDLC protocol. The ImageStream Engineers were able to add the feature and give us a software upgrade almost overnight.

All in all, we have been very pleased with ImageStream and their products.

Best Regards,

Craig W. Davidson
Goodrich Aerospace
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems

We've been using their equipment for three years and it has performed well. Of most interest to us now is their involvement with CALEA.

ImageStream appears to be the leader among the router vendors when it comes to CALEA intercepts. The conventional way that other router vendors perform CALEA intercepts is through trusted third parties which costs thousands per year. ImageStream supports the ATIS standards for real-time delivery, as well as the upcoming WISPA standard for intercepts that are captured to disk. With either method, ISPs can deliver lawful intercepts directly to the FBI without a trusted third party. This is what interests us a great deal.

The WISPA standard for CALEA intercepts should be finalized in August. This standard will provide a safe harbor for ISPs who are required to comply with CALEA. ImageStream sits on the WISPA standards committee which allows them to stay current on the FBI's intent as well as the implementation of the standard.

In addition to providing the intercept support, ImageStream is working on an appliance that will provision the intercept, and then archive that intercept to disk for replay to the FBI.

Please pass along thanks from this ISP for the work ImageStream is doing for their customers as well as ISP community at large.

Regards,

Ned Schumann
OlympusNet

[ Editor's Note: The WISPA CALEA IPNA standard was ratified May 1st, 2008. Visit http://www.wispa.org/calea/WCS/ for more information. ]

The absolute best thing about ImageStream is the level of support that they offer to their customers. It is by far the best team to deal with in this industry. At first, the interface/OS seems intimidating but the menus are well-grouped, concise and very intuitive. All fears and hesitancies disappear completely when you can have an engineer walk you through any scenario over the phone.

We have been rolling their Envoy and TransPort out to our locations that serve approximately 500 subscribers and have absolutely no complaints. The reliability is comforting.

Regards,

Pete

We are a mid-size hosting and colocation company in Austin, Texas. We host a variey of companies, such as AMD and BizTech. As we do have such high-powered customers, they demand 100% uptime, and the ImageStream routers allow us to do so. We have only had 1 problem with a router, which a call to ImageStream support fixed within 30 minutes (it was our fault). The routers by far outperform Cisco routers and are at a fraction of the cost. Plus, their support is awe inspiring. Why? Because they care. Your problem *is* their problem, and you're always talk to someone who knows how to fix a problem.

Bottom line, I will never purchase a Cisco router again. The ImageStream routers and support are top rate, and are by far the BEST routers and support you can get.

Chris
http://www.austindev.com

My company has purchased two ImageStream Rebel routers over the past three years, one with a 4-port T1 card and one with a DS-3 interface. Both routers function as internet gateways in an ISP environment. We had some issues with the first unit and contacted customer support. Customer support logged into the router and helped us to troubleshoot and diagnose issues with the T1 lines, and not with the ImageStream product. The second unit operates with up to 40 Mbps of traffic without breaking a sweat. Both units have performed trouble-free since they were installed. I would recommend the ImageStream product highly.

Regards,

Mike Varner
V.P. of Operations
Partnership Wireless

I am the Manager of Network Operations at Metropolitan West Asset Management (MWAM), an investment management firm. Our firm has approximately 100+ employees with roughly around $20 billion Assets under Management.

Our situation was that we needed to move all our servers from our headquarters to a secure data center, and this required that we place a DS3 between the data center and our main office. In our requirements, we also needed to have a redundant DS3 just in case the primary DS3 went down. There were also concerns that a single DS3 may not be adequate because our business is highly dependent on availability of server applications and guaranteed accessibility to the Internet.

Our shop is primarily a Linux shop. I found the costs of DS3 routers from Cisco and others to be priced exorbitantly. There was no way we could put in 2 DS3 routers or 4 for that matter without shelling out a lot of money. I thought to myself that there must be a solution that is cheaper and better, especially if it were a Linux-based solution. My research led me to ImageStream. I got a couple of the ImageStream Rebel routers for a fraction of the cost with the caveat that if it did not work out we would return them.

To my surprise, I found that these routers were fantastic. They were Linux-based and really easy to set up. I also found that these routers were capable of bonding, which meant that my redundant DS3s would actually be used and would double the bandwidth between the data center and our HQ. It has been a year since we placed these routers into service and they have worked flawlessly. I would definitely recommend these routers over Cisco's or any others for the feature set, flexibility and cost. Given their low cost, I was able to buy 2 more Rebels to serve as redundant routers should the hardware fail on either end.

Thanks,

Chait Errande
Mgr. Network Operations
Metropolitan West Asset Management

We are an IT consulting firm and deploy routers regularly for customers. Most of our customers are small businesses and do not require T1 capability. On occasion, however, we are asked to help with a situation that calls for something with more horsepower. One of our techs used ImageStream routers at an ISP he worked for previously and recommended them as being workhorses that were cost-effective and frugal with CPU time. That has proven true for us.

We have chosen ImageStream routers for 2 of our larger customers, a college and a bank. The college runs a Rebel router as its Internet gateway and was chosen for its ability to implement a large number of firewall and NATing rules without bogging down throughput. The college's server farm, plus some of the research workstations, require static NAT addressing and the firewall rules are lengthy. The ImageStream does all of that over a 6 Mbps ethernet connection to the ISP without breaking a sweat. The bank system uses 2 of the TransPort models in a (dual) hub and spoke WAN. Setup was easy and throughput is very good. Each router cost considerably less than the equivalent Cisco router. Tech support is good — friendly and responsive — which is a good thing because getting the rules down the first time would have been difficult without guidance. To be fair, though, I'm not fluent with Cisco IOS, either.

I will use them again when the need arises.

Karl Kemp
Ozark Information Services

I have worked with ImageStream routers spanning multiple companies and multiple positions (for me). My first experience was one in which I became an avid user/recommender of this product.

I grew up on Cisco devices, and used them when I helped found jaske.com, an ISP/web hosting company in 1997. When we moved our network to a colocation facility in 1999/2000, we took all our equipment including our Cisco routers, which we used to provide T1's and internet access to a number of local clients. About a year or two later (for those of you who work in IT, years seem like decades sometimes) when the code red outbreak happened, our Cisco routers were failing approximately every 15 minutes due to CPU overload. Most of them (except for the higher end 7200 series we had) just could not handle the traffic this virus/worm was creating, and nothing we did helped us fix the problem (we worked for days with Cisco engineers trying to resolve the problem).

I had seen the ImageStream routers before (my brother wanted us to consider switching to them about a year before), and we were desperate, so I contacted ImageStream to setup a 30-day trial, in case their product had the same issues. Luckily, most of the configuratrions were similar to Cisco IOS, so switching the configs took almost no effort and their staff was extremely helpful when I needed to modify the configs.

Well, to make a long story short, when we put our first unit in place about a day or two later (a Rebel to replace a Cisco 3640), the CPU utilization on the ImageStream Rebel was hovering around 1% (while the Ciscos were still bombing out). Since that day I have used their product in many different applications and scenarios, and between price AND performance beating Cisco hands down, there is no reason not to switch. That's not even considering many technical factors such as Cisco not having SSL v2 support.

I've recommended this product to many organizations (spanning many industries) with steadfast Cisco geeks (they're almost as bad as Microsoft groupies). Almost always (except in extreme cases where the deprogramming efforts failed), everyone was able to see the benefits of switching and realize them in a short period of time.

I have had many successes since this original encounter which has kept me working with this small band of "rebels" who, IMHO, are systematically and successfully beating the incumbent (if only politics worked the same way).

Alexi Touloumis

[ Editor's Note: Cisco has added SSL v2 to IOS since this customer offered his comments. ]

When we decided to refresh our routers we looked at several different options. One option we considered and ultimately purchased was ImageStream.

We were already using Linux heavily in the server space and decided we could leverage that knowledge by using Linux-based routers. Additionally, every ImageStream router came fully equipped with all features whereas others had special pricing for additional features. We also compared maintenance cost and ImageStream won hands-down. We've found the ImageStream routers to be exceptionally stable restarting them only to apply new code.

We are using them as routers, VPN concentrators, firewalls, and in a couple of cases as strictly NAT boxes. The flexibility of their routers in exceptional as is their technical support. I once called on a VPN tunnel we just couldn't get running and the support engineer was able to tell from the detailed IPsec logs that the problem was with the Cisco configuration on the other end and helped them resolve their issue.

We have been very satisfied with ImageStream's equipment, technical support, and maintenance.

Thank you,

Doug Aldridge
Network Services Manager

This provides comments about our experience with ImageStream products and support.

Customer 5 years, we are a small ISP
2 ImageStream Rebel Routers, one Transport
We also recommended the Transport to our customers for small office firewall and bandwidth limiting.
Key likes
- Linux-based
  1. means we have more control over the machine, we can add scripts to monitor things important to us,
  2. we don't have to maintain expertise in another Operating System like with Cisco's
  3. Secure shell (ssh) is the only defined incoming access method, so we can't screw up the configuration and leave FTP or Telnet or WebAccess available to the outside.
  4. Remote logging feature of Linux is supported so logs can be analysed on another machine, also setup with menu driven configuration
  5. Open Source means to us that if holes are ever found in OS components, we will know about them quickly and have lots of people besides our vendor working on a fix (a rare event, but this vendor did notify us of one serious hack possibility and suggested an upgrade, but the problem never affected our shop).
- Solid hardware, 2 boxes running 3 years without failure.
- Solid software, both a command line and a menu-based access to the router configuration.
- Effortless, menu-based upgrade of core software. It downloads the upgrade and checks everything for compatibility and then asks you to reboot. This means the router keeps working during the upgrade, and lets us decide when to reboot so we can upgrade OS on a Friday and reboot during a quiet time on the weekend.
- Support has been excellent. Although the core product has been solid not needing support, we wanted to set up a complex bandwidth limiting configuration — support was patient and stayed with us until we had it doing what we wanted it to do. They apparently have a good support tracking system as multiple people worked with us over several days.
- Price is competitive or a little less than other vendors of similar products.
- The company -- everybody we have talked with at ImageStream, from initial sales through billing and support have been friendly and accurate.

Larry Airaghi
Speedspan

We have two different models of ImageStream in our business, two Rebel Routers for our main office, and some smaller TransPort models for our branch offices.

We gave ImageStream a try about three years ago, due to dissatisfaction with our Cisco routers. The Ciscos were tedious to manage, and on those occasions when I had to contact technical support with questions, it was necessary to go through numerous time-consuming hoops just to get some basic questions answered.

We are happy that we tried the ImageStream alternative. Device configuration is simpler, particularly for our access control lists. The IPtables format is familiar to anyone who has used the Unix equivalent, and does not require the steep learning curve we had to initially undertake in order to learn the proprietary Cisco format. Because changes can be made by applying flat files at a command prompt, updates are quick and simple. We've never had any need to call ImageStream technical support.

On one occasion we chose to expand our larger router with additional ethernet ports. It proved to be a very simple matter to install the expansion adapter and get the unit back into operation without any fuss.

The plusses for us have been many, and we have yet to encounter any minuses. We're very happy with our ImageStream equipment so far.

Mark Peterson
Enterprise Manager
Builders Showcase Interiors

Cyberlink International (dba AAA Wireless) uses the full line of ImageStream routers in our network. We are primarily a point-to-point microwave wireless ISP with an extensive network that covers Indiana from Indianapolis to South Bend. We use several of their Gateway routers for our network head-ends, their Rebel and Transport routers at our tower sites, and Envoy routers for our customer premise equipment.

We have deployed just under 100 ImageStream routers and are extremely pleased with the performance and support. We chose ImageStream because of the increased performance and additional features offered above those available from their competitors. Not once have we regretted our decision to standardize our entire operation on ImageStream equipment.

Thank you,

Zak Wolfinger
IT Director
CyberLink International

My name is Daniel Ribelin and I am the Chief Technology Officer for iGlobalNetworks. We are a mid-sized Web hosting and network integration company.

Before our initial purchase of our ImageStream routers, we were with a company that provided all the routing for us. That company was using Cisco gear, and was running into VLAN issues, and of course virus issues. We were down for 2 days once and almost put us out of business.

After that my business partner and I decided to take control of our own network and I began researching alternative solutions to Cisco. We attended a small convention in Illinois where I met the guys from ImageStream. I talked with them in length, went to a class that was being offered for free and became convinced that the product was solid. I purchased 2 routers and began to setup my BGP-enabled network.

I ran into a few issues at first that I could not figure out. I called in to ImageStream and spoke with Eric. He was extremely helpful and we quickly isolated the issue. The issue turned out to be my lack of experience with BGP, and with Eric's help, I was soon online and running smooth. I have not had any hardware or software issues with my routers, they run solid and never need reboots.

I have referred many people to ImageStream knowing that they will get outstanding technical support with an outstanding product. Jeff Broadwick and I have since kept in touch, and he often e-mails me just to ask if everything is still okay or if there is anything that I need. I can honestly say that I have never in my time in this industry come across a company that offers such support with after sales communications. I am proud to be a client of ImageStream, and I am proud to refer others to them. I know for a fact that anyone that does business with ImageStream will be well taken care of and respected.

Thank you for your time,

Daniel Ribelin

We are a mid-sized wireless Internet provider covering a large area and we use an ImageStream Rebel router for our main gateway. We like the reliability and flexibility of this unit so much we are in the process of getting a backup unit. The support we receive for this unit is flawless.

Thanks,

David Milholen
Wireless Etc

Our online school uses an ImageStream Rebel router and we couldn't be happier with it. We purchased it over three years ago when we where having issues keeping our Cisco up to date. The ImageStream products have free software updates for the life of the product which makes this an ideal situation for underfunded schools.

The ImageStream has been so reliable that I have kind of forgot that we even have the thing. The only time it's down is to reboot after a software update. The Rebel also seems to route traffic better then the router we replaced with it. Our T1 line speed seemed to magically increase when we switched from the Cisco to the ImageStream Router.

Thanks,

David Hoffman
Systems Administrator

Three years ago my company purchased a pair of ImageStream Rebel Routers. My decision to go with the ImageStream product was met with some skepticism from both internal and contract network administrators since it was not Cisco gear. I heard every possible argument against purchasing anything that was not Cisco, but the ImageStream equipment was:

Less expensive
Based on the Linux operating system, not the proprietary Cisco OS
Allowed for expansion and additional features without hardware upgrades
Could be used in as simple or as complicated a network infrastructure as we required
Provided better network line speed than the existing Cisco equipment we were replacing.

The equipment has worked without any unscheduled down time for three years now. Those times we brought the equipment down were for reconfiguration due to changes in our networks and in our Internet service providers. When those changes were necessary, the technical support staff has been tremendous in helping us reconfigure the equipment.

As we moved from a single T-1 per Rebel Router to load balanced and bonded T-1s, and then on to our lateset adventure into BGP and multiple service providers, the technical support staff has been prompt, patient, and knowledgable in helping us bring up each and every new service. Most recently my network administrator placed a tech support call to ImageStream, and they, without asking for account numbers or company name, proceeded to walk him through the finer points of BGP and load balancing without even knowing if he was really a customer — a shining example of fine technical support.

As Cisco equipment in my office is retired, the ImageStream routers pick up the slack without any apparent stress on the equipment or the network. If my company ever expands to additional offices, you can expect that I will look to ImageStream for my WAN equipment.

Robert Meeks
I. T. Director
Vacation Express

If you are looking for input on ImageStream, you could say I'm a big fan.

I started using their routers in 2000 when a BayNetworks BCN router that the ISP I was working for required a 128 MB RAM upgrade, and due to its proprietary nature, necessitated upgrading one of its cards. This would have cost $18,000+.

Instead, I replaced the BCN with an ImageStream Gateway Router capable of taking feeds from a T3 and 4 T1s for around $11,000. Keeping in mind that the system still had enough slots available to easily add a number of T3s had I needed them. Since then I have also purchased another Gateway, a couple of Rebels and an R1 for various projects. The routers are great due to their incredible flexibility, Linux-based OS, and all the standard features.

Additionally, the folks at ImageStream are top notch. I actually did a review of their Rebel Router for Linux Journal back in 2002. Check it out and you will see why I love their routers: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5846.

Sincerely,

Paul M. Holzmann
Business Development
pholzmann@worldwidedialup.net

I run a Small ISP in Wendover and Wells Nevada and I bought an ImageStream Gateway router 2 years ago when I upgraded to a DS3. It was about half the cost of a Cisco solution and that was the key point at the time. I had never heard about ImageStream before then.

It was so simple to configure, intuitive even. I am CCNA certified and dabble in Linux, so the ImageStream configuration just clicked with me. In fact, managing it was so easy, last summer when I needed to upgrade the router at our second location, I purchased a second Gateway router and set up BGP routing between our 3 Internet circuits and these 2 routers. This was complex for me, and I had a lot of great help from Eric Plikuhn from ImageStream tech support. We emailed back and forth for weeks getting it implemented and now it works great.

Since I have gotten the first Gateway router, they have updated their system software a few times, and the upgrade has been perfect each time. In fact, upgrades are the only time I ever have to reboot them.

Anecdote:
I had just finished reading an e-mail from Jeff, the Sales Manager at ImageStream, regarding CALEA support in their routers, when I got a call from my boss saying that he was getting a sales pitch about a $150k CALEA compliance solution. And I was able to tell him that we have the capability for compliance for no additional cost already built into our current equipment.

Thanks,

Spencer Fuller CCNA
WREC Wireless Internet Service

It's cheap and it works great!

Gary Summy
Central Texas Telephone Cooperative, Inc.

We switched from Cisco to ImageStream four years ago. Reliability and performance has been perfect, and the ImageStream support has always been there for us when we wanted to utilize new functionality. We are 100% satisfied and no looking back.

Best Regards,

Mike Peace
Orbit Broadband Inc