Maxtec Peripherals (Pty) Limited, a dominant player in the storage system market in South Africa, has signed a technology partnership with Experian, one of the world`s largest consumer credit bureau`s employing over 11000 people in 130 offices world-wide. The partnership will involve Maxtec in the supply and development of state-of-the-art database storage systems based on Storage Area Network (SAN) technology.
Experian has successfully completed the first phase of their millennium IT strategy which includes a successful migration of their credit query system from mainframe to NT. Experian require 99,9% availability to their data in order to guarantee enquiry response times for their customers. One of the components critical to the success of the project was the direct access storage component, and whether it would meet Experian`s stringent predetermined specifications.
Experian Bureau must be on line 15 hours a day, and therefore use the remaining hours for back-ups, data-loading and batch processing. Previously the processing of back-ups took up to four-and-a-half hours to complete each evening. Experian also needed to cater for 25% growth in their database over the next six months. Through an intense study of Experian`s data flow and after gaining a thorough understanding of the business impact that the disk solution would have., Maxtec was able to identify and implement a solution that exceeded all expectations.
The solutions uses a Raid Storage Server that has the fastest performance specifications in the industry outstripping any competitor. This is packaged in fibre SAN, providing for critical requirements such as multiple paths to data and disaster recovery. The net benefit to Experian is 400% decrease in the backup time with a corresponding improvement in client access speed and a proven disaster recovery service. The SAN strategy also provides a consolidated pool of storage that can grow as Experian`s data management requirements grow, thereby providing them with unparalleled scalability and investment protection.
"The Sagitta scaleable storage array is the latest high performance, dual controller Fibre Channel RAID solution from Sagitta Performance Systems. Designed as a complex system from disk drives to Fibre Channel hubs, the product represents a total solution for data storage. The revolutionary, advanced architecture of this new system is focused on delivering optimal, scalability and reliability for today`s sophisticated storage requirements," explains Maxtec`s DSAD product manager Gareth Donald.
This initial installation is worth in excess of R1 million to Maxtec excluding support and maintenance contracts. The South African development is Experian`s international pilot NT site that will be rolled out to other countries throughout the world. It is anticipated that Maxtec will assist Experian in rolling out the system to Poland, Kuwait, Spain, Holland, India and Argentina, while Sagitta will undertake this project in the United Kingdom.
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