Research International Transforms Worldwide Storage Strategy With 3PAR

Research International Transforms Worldwide Storage Strategy With 3PAR

Global Market Research Firm Serves More with Less - Improves Service While Cutting Storage Infrastructure and Administration 80%

FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- 3PAR(R), the leading provider of Utility Storage, announced today that Research International, world leader in qualitative and quantitative custom market research, has adopted the 3PAR InServ(R) Storage Server to consolidate mission critical web-based data collection services worldwide. The London-headquartered company selected 3PAR over other vendors for simplicity, always-on availability and business flexibility.

"The ideal storage infrastructure shouldn't need looking after," said John Wedderburn, Technical Architect for Enterprise Infrastructure at Research International. "With 3PAR we've achieved our goal of flexible, enterprise-class storage without the burden of enterprise-class storage administration."

"The InServ Storage Server is ridiculously simple to provision and manage," said Wedderburn. "With minimal training or expertise in enterprise storage, we can perform complex reconfigurations in ten minutes. We now have a storage utility that lets us easily meet unpredictable demands and tight deadlines, while continuously reusing our storage investment."

Research International estimates they have cut their on-line storage administration by 80%-spending hours instead of days per month on storage management.

Meeting its need for a simple, shared storage environment, Research International consolidated and connected over a dozen servers to a single InServ Storage Server configured with 32 host ports. This saved the company not only the investment in a switched SAN environment, but also the training, expense and ongoing management that result from layers of heterogeneous hardware and software. 3PAR supports Research International's 24 x 7 infrastructure with seamless storage access during failover and failback of its clustered, mission critical Windows environment. 3PAR Thin Provisioning has also improved capacity utilization for multiple applications, cutting up to 80% of the capacity that would have otherwise been purchased. 3PAR's uniquely flexible and efficient Virtual Copy software will be used for off-host backups from snapshots.

Prior to its consolidation initiative, Research International utilized a mixed bag of software, hardware, and processes across its many worldwide offices to perform its data collection services. To speed client responsiveness and to cut global IT cost, Research International undertook a high profile IT transformation that would centralize and standardize their environment while providing a highly available and scalable infrastructure to support 24 x 7 operations. To support its clustered application servers using Microsoft Cluster Server, Research International required a highly available, shared storage platform. Simplicity was also vital, since Research International was not prepared to invest in significant storage expertise. Lastly, flexibility was critical because client projects are highly customized and time-sensitive, and Research International continually develops new service offerings.

"Business success today is a matter of detecting change and reacting quickly," said Tony Lock, Chief Analyst at Bloor Research. "This is why businesses need real-time IT infrastructures that use virtualization to eliminate complexity, not mask it. The spoils will go to vendors who can deliver these capabilities, and Utility Storage fits this requirement very neatly."

After considering modular array alternatives from traditional vendors, Research International selected a 3PAR InServ S400 Storage Server with 3PAR Virtual Copy and Thin Provisioning software. Research International now runs Exchange for worldwide messaging, Microsoft SQL Server for database services, and Lotus Domino for collaboration. All of these application services, as well as file services and a worldwide financials application running on Oracle 9i / Solaris, were quickly consolidated onto the InServ Storage Server. A second InServ Storage Server was purchased for a second data center in the United States.

Research International is a member company of WPP Group Plc (NASDAQ:WPPGY), one of the world's leading advertising and marketing services groups. Other member companies include J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather. Distinct for its innovative and value-add approach to market research, Research International serves global brand leaders in the financial, energy, retail, packaged goods and automotive industry.

"3PAR Utility Storage is ideal for data services providers like Research International," said David Scott, CEO of 3PAR. "The ability to deliver high-quality data services through a simple and economically disruptive storage infrastructure is the unique value that 3PAR delivers, and is why more companies like Research International are turning to Utility Storage."

About 3PAR

3PAR is the leading provider of Utility Storage, a category of enterprise storage arrays that offers a highly scalable, efficient and controllable information infrastructure. 3PAR's tightly tuned system of software, hardware and mission-critical service allows customers to securely consolidate storage, centralize information and reduce total cost of ownership -- simply. Well positioned with key strategic investors including Oracle, Sun, and VERITAS, 3PAR has been operating successfully for the past five years and has been serving enterprise customers since 2002.

3PAR is based in Fremont, California, and has offices in London, UK and Tokyo, Japan. The company's corporate headquarters are located at 4209 Technology Drive, Fremont, CA 94538. Phone: 510-413-5999, fax: 510-354-3070, email: salesinfo@3pardata.com, Web site: http://www.3par.com/.

NOTE: 3PARdata, the 3PAR logo, 3PAR, Serving Information, InServ, InForm, and InSpire are all trademarks or registered trademarks of 3PARdata, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


Source: 3PARdata, Inc.

CONTACT: Julie Greene, Sr. Marcom Manager, of 3PAR, +1-510-668-9262, or
jgreene@3pardata.com

Web site: http://www.3par.com/


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