Compaq

Reliability: The Ultimate Mission-Critical Mandate
(Continued)

 

FTT implemented two Compaq AlphaServer 4100 systems using an Compaq Tru64 Unix Available Server Environment (ASE) solution. from Compaq. Both servers run the Compaq Tru64 Unix operating system. The AlphaServer systems and a database application from Oracle Corp. support more than 150 FTT employees, including a 120-seat call center, and thousands of simultaneous computer transactions daily.

The main reason that FTT implemented clustering was to ensure availability during routine maintenance, system upgrades, and database migration because of database upgrades and patches. "Those benefits alone have made the job of administering the system a order of magnitude easier relieved (relieved does not make sense) than from what it had been before," Grammer says. "In a 24x7 world, there is no time to bring a server down for routine maintenance."

And in this Internet age, most firms are now in the 24x7 world. Which makes system availability not just desirable, but a business necessity. And it makes it imperative to choose systems that provide the largest available guarantees and performance possible.

Services and Technology Key to Availability
When Data Leaves Your Building, Keeping Systems Up Requires a Long View

By Joe Mullich

Glenn Zorn, vice president of FactSet Research Systems, Inc. in Greenwich, Connecticut , knows full well the importance of hardware choices in creating a high-availability system. FactSet operates a cluster of Compaq Alphaserver GS systems 4100 processors to do quantitative analysis that banks and financial institutions used to run their businesses.

"Clients aren't simply taking data out of our systems and looking at it," Zorn says. "They put that data into their production systems in order to do financial trading. If their production stream isn't done by the time the market opens, their whole day can be ruined."

And losing one day of business can potentially mean a seven-figure loss. No wonder Zorn looks at high availability from every possible angle. And he realizes that high availability, which is the lifeblood of his business, is not simply about the computer, as important as that is. High availability is a complex topic that includes power, room equipment, software, people, backup, hardware and software support, and a myriad of other issues.

Zorn notes, for example, that having an emergency generator for FactSet's computer room does little good if the telecommunications vault owned by the local carrier doesn't also have an uninterrupted power source.

"In that case, our data center could be up and running, but there would be no way to access it," Zorn says. "To create a high-availability system, you have to look at everyone's infrastructure that connects to you. Our data never used to leave our building; now it goes around the world. How do I get to Germany if the transatlantic cable gets cut? Is our carrier set up to route in a different direction that still gives us a good response time?"(next)

 

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