3PAR Selected by NewsGator

3PAR announced that NewsGator Technologies, in RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Enterprise 2.0 technologies, has implemented 3PAR Utility Storage to support its mission-critical Microsoft SQL Server database applications.

“3PAR already provides a reliable and easy-to-use consolidated storage platform for our Windows Server environment,” said Glenn Berry, Database Architect for NewsGator. “With 3PAR’s support of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, we can now combine Microsoft’s most advanced operating system and database technology with our 3PAR Utility Storage platform to run our business with complete confidence.“

NewsGator’s previous storage environment lacked flexibility and was difficult to manage and scale in response to business changes and rapid growth. With 3PAR Utility Storage, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider has scaled easily within a single, autonomically load-balanced storage system. The decision to deploy 3PAR has allowed NewsGator to enhance their RSS database infrastructure without time-consuming planning activities or costly professional services.

NewsGator develops and markets RSS aggregation solutions for individual end users, enterprises, and online content providers. As part of the company’s RSS aggregation solutions, NewsGator currently estimates that it manages more than 2.5 billion RSS articles using Microsoft SQL Server. Over the next year, NewsGator expects these numbers to climb significantly. In consideration of this anticipated increase, NewsGator determined that database management, storage infrastructure agility, and storage scalability had become critical requirements for their storage environment. NewsGator also determined that it needed to enhance its relational database infrastructure. Accordingly, the NewsGator team sought out a highly virtualized storage platform that would enable greater flexibility and scalability than their previous storage platform.

After evaluating alternatives from traditional Storage Area Network (SAN) vendors, NewsGator selected 3PAR Utility Storage to support its solutions, all of which are built on multiple Microsoft SQL Server databases. NewsGator selected a 3PAR InServ S400 Storage Server with 50 terabytes of storage and several 3PAR software offerings including 3PAR Dynamic Optimization, 3PAR Virtual Copy, and 3PAR System Reporter.

3PAR Dynamic Optimization software is designed to enable users to change data service levels with a single command, online and non-disruptively. This includes the ability to convert between RAID levels, drive types (Fibre Channel and Enterprise-class Serial ATA), and data placement to provide high capacity utilization while preserving high performance levels.

3PAR Virtual Copy, an innovative thin snapshot technology that requires no upfront space reservations, is designed to provide customers such as NewsGator with efficient copies of their SQL databases and to allow them to revert to any previously created snapshot with a single command. This functionality is important to recovering SQL databases quickly and minimizing company recovery time objectives.

3PAR System Reporter is a simple-to-use, Web-based performance and capacity management tool designed to aggregate historical system data for one or more InServ Storage Servers. System Reporter is ideal for troubleshooting, planning, monitoring, and providing information required for Service Level Agreements and chargeback support. NewsGator uses the performance statistics available through System Reporter to plan for and justify needed upgrades.

“SaaS industry professionals are increasingly looking for more cost-efficient ways to effectively scale unpredictable but potentially massive data storage requirements,” said Tom Trainer, Senior Analyst at Analytico, Inc. “3PAR Utility Storage reduces costs while providing the kind of flexibility, ease-of-use, and scalability that a dynamic and growing business requires.”

“NewsGator is one of many SaaS providers re-evaluating their storage environments to prepare for potentially high levels of growth,” said David Scott, CEO and President of 3PAR. “We are very pleased that, after evaluating traditional alternatives, NewsGator has adopted 3PAR Utility Storage to support its mission-critical SQL Server database environment.“