Like many forward-thinking municipalities, the City of Delaware, OH had invested in cutting edge technology to provide superior services to its population, but optimization of that technology proved to be problematic and expensive. This business brief addresses how Delaware leveraged WHIPTAIL silicon storage arrays to eliminate performance issues, reduce power consumption and increase the productivity of IT staff to better serve the community.
Of particular concern to the City of Delaware were significant issues with a permitting software application, a Geographic Information System (GIS) on a SQL server that is essential for managing the infrastructure capital assets of its public utilities. Before WHIPTAIL, the permitting software required more than 2 hours to process zoning reports for a weekly board meeting; now processing is immediate and there are no user complaints about performance.
The WHIPTAIL solutions created an environment with instantaneous performance of virtualized Tier 1 applications (including SQL databases, Microsoft Exchange 2010, Microsoft terminal servers), reduced the application server footprint from the 12 existing physical servers to 4 physical servers, eliminated the need for an intended but prohibitively expensive purchase of 50 additional servers, reduced power and cooling costs by 90% and reduced the total cost of ownership for data center rack space from $60,000 annually to $600 annually.
COMPANY BACKGROUND
The City of Delaware (population 34,000+) is the seat of Delaware County, located about 30 miles north of downtown Columbus, Ohio’s state capitol. Delaware County has been the state’s fastest growing county for more than a decade and is among the top 20 fastest growing, wealthiest and most educated areas in the nation.
The total labor force of Delaware County is 43,800. The largest employers are manufacturers of automobile coatings, plastics, copper products, education, insurance, automobile parts and distribution, sports apparel, retail, services and government. The City of Delaware employs approximately 300 people. The City of Delaware, OH has been a WHIPTAIL customer since 2010.
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
• To virtualize Tier 1 applications, including SQL databases, Microsoft Exchange 2010 databases via iSCSI and Microsoft terminal servers that directly host compatible multi-user client desktops running on a variety of Windows-based and non Windows-based hardware (similar to Citrix XenApp)
• To eliminate performance issues with a permitting software application, a Geographic Information System on a SQL server, essential for managing infrastructure capital assets of public utilities
• To address end-user complaints about slow performance of applications, especially Exchange e-mail
THE CHALLENGE
• To virtualize the 12 existing physical servers in order to reduce latency, conserve space, lower power consumption and require minimal (or no) maintenance
• To overcome initial reluctance to virtualize due to concern about legacy storage performance
• To support customer requirements by providing the flexibility to operate over different protocols
THE SOLUTION
After cost/benefit analysis of storage solutions proposed by competitors, the City of Delaware chose the WHIPTAIL silicon storage array.
The WHIPTAIL solution directly replaced 30 traditional 15,000 rpm, 300 GB drives and eliminated the need for the City of Delaware to purchase up to an additional 45 traditional disk drives to obtain the required performance.
The City of Delaware originally intended to overprovision to a total of 75 disk drives with 22.5 TB capacity to meet performance demands; however, a single, 6 TB WHIPTAIL silicon storage array, using the RACERUNNER Operating System, was able to replace Delaware’s 2 existing storage arrays, satisfy the performance demands and at the same time significantly reduce energy costs. Moreover, the WHIPTAIL array was up and running within one day.
BENEFITS
By replacing the existing 12 physical servers with 50 virtual servers on 4 physical servers residing on a
WHIPTAIL storage array, the City of Delaware achieved significant performance improvements across the target Tier 1 applications, while at the same time achieving a substantial reduction of power consumption and floor space, as follows:
PERFORMANCE GAINS
• Virtually eliminated latency across the enterprise to under one millisecond, creating an environment with instantaneous performance of virtualized Tier 1 applications (including SQL databases, Microsoft Exchange 2010, Microsoft terminal servers)
• Reduced access time to a permitting software application1 from 20-100 milliseconds to 1-2 milliseconds, eliminating user complaints about performance and increasing productivity by providing IT staff with previously unrealized time
• Reduced MS Exchange access time from 10 minutes to 30 seconds for a city attorney who had 10K e-mails in
his inbox
COST REDUCTIONS
• Reduced Tier 1 application server footprint by 67% (12 servers to 4 servers)
• Realized 80% annual savings in server power costs
• Reduced Tier 1 application power and cooling costs by 90%
• Reduced total cost of ownership for data center rack space from $60,000/year to $600/year
