SAN DIEGO, Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Mushroom Networks, Inc., innovators of Broadband Bonding™ technology, announced today that New York-based real estate broker Houlihan Lawrence has implemented Mushroom Networks' Truffle appliances to interconnect its 25 branch offices and corporate headquarters. Since it began using Truffle, Houlihan Lawrence has cut its telecom costs in half and its wide area network (WAN) speeds are about 75 times faster than before. The broker also has a fully-redundant solution with automated failover that strengthens its business continuity initiative.

Mushroom Networks' Truffle is a WAN virtualization solution that leverages virtual leased lines (VLLs) and Broadband Bonding, a technique that melds various numbers of Internet lines into a single connection. Houlihan Lawrence replaced its slow and costly MPLS network and the T1 lines that linked its branch offices to the network – a project that went into overdrive when Superstorm Sandy hit in late October 2012.

Houlihan Lawrence's Director of IT, Andrew Lafreniere, and his team had just begun planning to install Truffle at two offices when Sandy hit and the company's MPLS went down. As the market leader, it was critical that Houlihan Lawrence was operational and able to help its customers and clients with the aftermath of the storm. Rather than wait it out, Lafreniere and his staff moved forward with an enterprise implementation, bringing each office back online within a week. The Truffle solution supports the broker's mission-critical business applications, including telephone over IP and cloud based applications such as customer relationship management among others.

"Fortunately we were planning this implementation. Otherwise, we would have been down for weeks," Lafreniere said. "In addition to the benefits of low cost and speed, the diversified connections to multiple providers that the Truffle appliances enable allow for unattended failover. In the event that one of the connections goes down, the branches stay up without any intervention on our end."

With a faster, cost-effective WAN in place, Houlihan Lawrence is already planning its next IT project. The broker plans to implement a Unified Communications system on the WAN. This is expected to bring additional efficiencies, putting total costs savings closer to 75 percent over the broker's previous MPLS, according to Lafreniere.

About Mushroom Networks
Mushroom Networks, Inc., is a privately held company based in San Diego, CA, providing patent pending Broadband Bonding solutions to a range of Internet connection applications. The company's flagship product line serves SMBs, enterprises, multi-tenant buildings, and broadband service providers and bonds dissimilar broadband access technologies forming a single highly reliable broadband pipe that can easily scale based on needs. Mushroom Networks was a finalist for the coveted 2012 San Diego Business Journal Innovation Award, XCHANGE Tech Innovators Xcellence Award, 2007 CONNECT® 'Most Innovative New Product' award, 2008 CONNECT® 'Most Innovative New Product' award, Network World's "top technology trend of 2008" award,  and nominated for the best investment opportunity within the fixed telecom sector by Telecom Council of Silicon Valley.  For more information, please visit http://www.mushroomnetworks.com or call 858-452-1031.

SOURCE Mushroom Networks