Fluidata Gets 48x Faster Report Generation in Microsoft SQL

CASE STUDY
FLUIDATA
Reduce lag time.
Consistently
hit targets.
Challenge
Need for faster performance and high availability for
business-critical applications running on Microsoft
SQL Servers.
Solution
Replace LeftHand Network SAN with new Gen 8 HP
Servers, SQL Server 2012 with Availability Groups, and
gain preformance and high availability delivered by
FlashMAX II PCIe SSDs.
Benefits
FlashMAX II card performs 8x faster than the test
15K SAS server, and 28x faster than the live network
SAN setup, enabling Fluidata to generate reports that
previously took over 4 hours to run, to complete in less
than 10 minutes.
Fluidata pioneers an innovative and high-speed data service, providing bespoke solutions for
the needs of each individual client. As a company, they provide a reliable, high level of service
excellence clients will not have experienced elsewhere.
As an independent provider, they have relationships with multiple suppliers, interconnecting
into the backbones of national and international carriers, creating a unique and diverse
network. With an exclusive position in the market, Fluidata can provide for all business
demands. Their award winning area of expertise covers everything data.
Fluidata is growing rapidly (approximately 45% per year). Three years ago the company
purchased a LeftHand Networks SAN from HP. The SAN consisted of two nodes each running
on HP Gen 7 Servers using Microsoft SQL Server 2008.
The SAN was showing its age with its performance ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 IOPS. The
SAN is in two different locations with replication between two of the LeftHand Networks
nodes. Most importantly, business-critical applications running on Microsoft SQL Servers were
beginning to lag behind. In one case, a monthly report used by management was taking an
average of 4-5 hours to process, which was deemed unacceptable.
1
CASE STUDY
“HGST provided us with a test system
and performance improvements were
seen right away. We are very excited to
deliver this new capability to our team
and expect to see significant performance
improvements immediately.”
Sonu Nayyar
Senior Director of Production Operations at LinkedIn.
FLUIDATA
Fluidata knew of HGST and its local UK team
from previous product research. Fluidata’s
presales team brought HGST PCIe Flash
and server-side networking solutions to the
attention of the internal IT team who decided
to run a performance benchmark test using
HGST FlashMAX II PCIe SSDs. The results
were astounding. The team observed that
the report mentioned above, will now run
in approximately 5 minutes or 48 times the
speed of the LeftHand SAN. Replication will
now be run on SQL Servers using Availability
Groups and asynchronous replication,
which should enhance the speed of other
processing tasks as well.
After
New HP Servers
with HGST FlashMAX II PCIe SSDs
Before
HP LD3 Servers
with HP LeftHand SAN
Synchronos Replication
Between LeftHand Arrays
HGST FlashMAX® II PCIe SSD
Fluidata has ordered new Gen 8 HP Servers
and will be deploying a completely new
infrastructure including the SQL Server
2012 with Availability Groups to recreate the
topology for replication between the two
data center sites. According to Chris Rogers,
Fluidata’s Operations Director, “For simple
data retrieval the FlashMAX II card performs
8x faster than our test 15K SAS server, and
28x faster than our live network SAN setup.”
This enables Fluidata to generate reports
that previously took over 4 hours to run, to
complete in less than 10 minutes.
Asynchronos Replication
Between MS SQL Availability Groups
48x Improvement in Report Generation
5x Improvements in IOPs
For more information on HGST FlashMAX II PCIe SSDs,
visit HGST at
http://www.hgst.com/solid-state-storage/enterprise-ssd/pcie-ssd/
FlashMAX-II.
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