Discovery Health has added to its already substantial Dell server base by purchasing an additional 100 PowerEdge 350 servers. This latest acquisition allowed Discovery to add another tier to its business model, enabling the company to more cost-effectively run its software.
Now, components are run off Discovery`s 1U server base of 200 PowerEdge products. "We realised that running processes individually, or a couple per server, produced better responses than running these on a back-end server," explains Luis Correia, Senior Manager: IT Operations at Discovery Health.
"As we add processes to our systems, such as changing a members details, we can simply append additional PowerEdge 350s to cater for the processing needs of these modules. Bear in mind that Discovery processes about 35 000 claims per day, while our call centre deals with approximately 25 000 calls daily - efficient technology is a must in this environment."
Brendan McAravey, marketing manager at Dell SA, explains why Discovery opted for the PowerEdge 350: "Discovery had need of an ultra rack-dense 1U, given space limitations and price considerations and the PowerEdge 350 provides a very cost-effective, rack-optimised solution with low power consumption."
Three years ago Discovery took Dell up on its rental option in order to leverage of the maintenance and refresh rates that the vendor offers. Discovery`s procurement policy currently identifies Dell as the supplier of a large portion of its servers.
Correia believes that they gain substantial benefit from the direct model. "We get regular product updates, with advance notice of new products. We also appreciate the fact that we have direct access to the manufacturer in times of economic fluctuation, such as during the rand/dollar fluctuation at the end of last year. It enabled us to forecast how we might be affected and plan accordingly."
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