MRC lays robust communications foundation with Sun server

The Medical Research Council (MRC), South Africa`s world-class healthcare facility, has laid a solid foundation for Internet-based communication and collaboration with the purchase of a Sun Fire V880 server from MGX.

The server, replacing a previous-generation Sun machine, is being used to drive the e-mail requirements of the MRC today, and to support its portal strategy as it is fulfilled later this year.

The MRC expects the highest level of performance from its server, reducing latency and providing its more than 300 e-mail users in Cape Town with rapid response times, and giving itself more than five years of investment protection through the machine`s inherent scalability.

Supplied by the Cape-based branch of Enterprise Solutions at MGX, the rack-mounted server has been equipped with two Sparc III processors, and 4GB memory with room for a further six processors, and 28GB of RAM. It has been fitted with six internal high-performance disks, connected to the processors via with fibre channel for optimal throughput.

"E-mail is vital and highly strategic to us as an organisation," says Dave Gargan, chief information technology adviser to the MRC. "At times we hit peaks of between 400 and 4 000 I/Os (inputs/outputs) a second, which was beyond the capability of our previous server, leading to long delay times for our users."

Given the MRC`s stature worldwide as a credible organisation that interacts with many other researchers worldwide via e-mail, the new server`s high-availability capabilities were a key requirement, says Gargan. "We need 24x7 uptime, and accordingly we`ve contracted with MGX for a business-critical maintenance and support contract."

Security is also a very high priority for the MRC: "We have a great deal of information which if obtained by unauthorised people or taken out of context could cause significant damage," says Gargan. "The Solaris environment has a far better security track record than commodity servers, being hacked less often and less prone to viruses, and it will alert us in the event of a denial-of-service attack."

As the MRC`s requirements grow, the server can easily be upgraded, with no disruption to the business: additional processors and storage can be added without introducing new cabinets or taking the server down, and the modular nature of the Solaris operating environment ensures that future functionality can be introduced with minimal change management.

The MRC is migrating its e-mail from its existing Netscape backbone to iPlanet Messaging Server, also supplied by MGX, and has committed strategically to iPlanet`s Portal Server for national and international information sharing and collaboration. "As our users commit in volume to the portal, so we expect the server-side processing requirements to rocket," notes Gargan, "and we will need to invoke the extra processors that the server can accommodate."

As the MRC is a non-profit organisation, MGX provided the server and associated services at a significant discount, says Marinda Prinsloo, account manager, Enterprise Solutions at MGX. "This was done in line with our social responsibility programme. We are proud to be associated with the goals and objectives of the MRC."