Tuesday, May 30, 2006
NextAction dumps Microsoft for Oracle and open source
NextAction dumps Microsoft for Oracle and open source: "Helle said that he had never seen SQL Server scale to that size and believed it was time for a change. He was also concerned about the operating system and the hardware.
'It just was a matter of the company growing so fast and the data volume growing so fast that it just outpaced SQL Server,' Helle said. '[And] I like Windows for my desktop, but I didn't like Windows running a 13 terabyte database environment.'
Following a lengthy evaluation and testing process, the company decided to dump Microsoft Windows and SQL Server for Oracle Database 10g running on the open source Suse Linux operating system from Novell Inc. During the six-month implementation which lasted from December to June of 2005, Helle said the firm also moved off direct attached SCSI storage in favor of an HP-based storage area network (SAN) offering from a local reseller.
Helle says the biggest benefit of the now-completed initiative -- other than protected revenue as a result of reduced downtime -- is the fact that things run a lot faster now. He added that the new systems store data much more efficiently, resulting in smaller file sizes.
'We have a much faster system now and a much more scalable system,' he said. 'Right now that primary database is up to about seven terabytes, and we're on a SAN that can grow to about 330 terabytes.' "
'It just was a matter of the company growing so fast and the data volume growing so fast that it just outpaced SQL Server,' Helle said. '[And] I like Windows for my desktop, but I didn't like Windows running a 13 terabyte database environment.'
Following a lengthy evaluation and testing process, the company decided to dump Microsoft Windows and SQL Server for Oracle Database 10g running on the open source Suse Linux operating system from Novell Inc. During the six-month implementation which lasted from December to June of 2005, Helle said the firm also moved off direct attached SCSI storage in favor of an HP-based storage area network (SAN) offering from a local reseller.
Helle says the biggest benefit of the now-completed initiative -- other than protected revenue as a result of reduced downtime -- is the fact that things run a lot faster now. He added that the new systems store data much more efficiently, resulting in smaller file sizes.
'We have a much faster system now and a much more scalable system,' he said. 'Right now that primary database is up to about seven terabytes, and we're on a SAN that can grow to about 330 terabytes.' "
