A single Sun FireTM 6800 server running the SolarisTM 8 Operating System along with a Sun StorEdgeTM 3910 system helped lower operating costs for the nation's largest classified advertising firm. Trader Publishing Company's portal, Traderonline.com, choose Sun to migrate its Oracle 9i database from two Sun servers to one.

As the largest classified advertisement portal in the world, Traderonline.com needed a system that could handle its high volume of online searches and large database of ads running on Oracle 9i, which calls for a highly available and scalable computing environment.

Results prove the company's decision was a productive one with its system now running at 99.999 percent availability along with a 400 percent increase in CPU and storage capacity. The company has also reduced the total cost of ownership (TCO) of its server environment by 20 percent.

When the decision to upgrade the current operating system was initially conceived, several different vendors, including IBM and HP, were evaluated to determine the best consolidation solution. Realizing Sun's close working relationship with Sun iForceSM ISV Partner Oracle Corporation could maximize the company's effectiveness in handling the estimated 540,000 online advertisements (which draws more than 7.5 million visitors each month) the company decided on Sun.

Sun Services consolidated the two legacy Sun FireTM 4500 servers to the Sun Fire 6800 server. Since this consolidation, real-time Web site querying has been enabled and a reduction in the company's operational costs has been noted.

"By consolidating our Sun servers running the Oracle 9i database, we benefit from the combined performance and the strength of the alliance between Sun and Oracle," says Joe Fuller, chief technology officer at Trader Electronic Media, which produces Traderonline.com. "Together, these companies deliver tightly integrated and secure enterprise solutions that keep business-critical systems like ours up and running."

The Sun Fire 6800 server's high-availability features meet the customers' demand for real-time access with its Dynamic System Domains, as well as dynamic reconfiguration and full hardware redundancy features, which deliver continuous uptime and facilitate rapid recovery in the event of system failure.

Although consolidation was the company's primary focus, it was obvious a robust storage environment was also critical to handle the colossal size of its databases. With the Sun StorEdge 3910 system, a reliable backup system was installed with restoration facilities to ensure security.

"By consolidating our hardware environment to a larger Sun platform, we knew we could keep up with our growing data capacity and demanding service levels while reducing costs and improving overall manageability," Fuller said.

During the upgrade, Sun consultants evaluated the overall system at Trader Electronic Media. The SunReadySM Availability Assessment team helped pinpoint quality-of-service requirements associated with the applications supported by the consolidated data center environment. Identifying system availability issues and determining ways to reduce the risk of outages was another goal.

"The SunReady Availability Assessment revealed that we needed to improve organizational processes," notes Fuller. "The assessment also provided insights that have helped us improve system performance. In addition, we have raised our own skill level by taking advantage of Sun training courses and, during the engagement, Suns technical expertise."

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Other articles in the Oracle section of Volume 71, Issue 3: EPL, Inc. Moves to Sun and Oracle, Kisses Microsoft Goodbye Nation's Largest Classified Advertising Firm Chooses Sun (this article) Dynamically Resizing the SGA in Oracle 9i See all archived articles in the Oracle section.

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