Vision Solutions Offers Enabling Software That Couples Mirrored
Databases of Distributed Systems With Workload Balancing
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Global marketing, Internet commerce and data warehousing applications are creating a new urgency among customers for unprecedented high system scalability and availability, according to Vision Solutions Inc., developers of the enabling software for IBM AS/400 clusters.
The demand for non-stop database access has many IS managers scrambling to accommodate even scheduled downtime, according to Phillip Langford, vice president of marketing at Vision Solutions. "While new Internet and global intranet configurations from IBM are illuminating the need for HSA (High Systems Availability) clusters, the issue goes much deeper into the ranks of AS/400 users who are seeing normal business growth eat away at system capacity," he said.
Those companies that rejected the concept of a hot backup system for disaster recovery purposes now have a new or emerging set of circumstances requiring 24x7 data availability. Continuous operation, disaster recovery and diminishing performance are usually thought of as three completely different issues, but they are all part of the equation that adds up to the amount of time a system and its data are available to users. Clustering solutions developed by Vision Solutions and jointly marketed by IBM and Vision Solutions address all three issues at once.
"An AS/400 cluster is now an affordable and proven middle ground that exceeds the relevant data availability qualities of other clustering solutions," said Langford.
"In the Vision Solutions environment, an AS/400 cluster can consist of two or more systems located within a campus for continuous availability or distributed geographically for disaster recovery. In this regard, AS/400 clusters have an advantage over fault-tolerant systems, where everything is contained in a single footprint and does not provide any protection for such things as natural and site disasters," said Chris Turner, chief technology officer at Vision Solutions.
The Vision clustering enablement software provides all of the resources for data mirroring, workload balancing, distribution of software updates and cluster management. A natural participant in a cluster environment is data warehousing. Vision Suite's software can replicate to nearly 10,000 concurrent destinations, ensuring that enterprise information is intelligently and rapidly distributed to where it is needed.
"Along with the inherent qualities of the AS/400e, we're offering an integrated solution that combines the highest levels of reliability, availability, performance and scalability," Turner added. "There is no missing ingredient, no time required for further development, and no need to prove the concept; it's all here right now."
Companies that are entering the era of electronic commerce with client/server systems such as the newly-introduced AS/400e can no longer rely solely on the high reliability record of individual components. If each of five elements in a client/server application has a 99 percent reliability, the overall reliability is 94 percent, or the product of all five elements. With 10 components, reliability shrinks to 90 percent by the same formula.
The most expedient means of restoring the network to 99 percent or better availability is a cluster approach, in the opinion of both IBM and Vision Solutions. Having two or more AS/400s in a cluster not only provides 24x7 availability, but adds to scalability by running different applications on each machine at the same time as selecting one as a hot backup to take control during scheduled and non-scheduled downtime.
"High availability clusters enable us to offer an immediate solution to electronic commerce applications requiring virtually zero downtime," said Steve Finnes of IBM's Rochester AS/400 Laboratories. Turner added that comparable solutions from competitors in the midrange computing market is years away, and in some instances industry analysts have voiced doubts about them ever achieving the performance and scalability offered today by the AS/400e.
The Gartner Group, an early consultant on data availability issues to IS managers, predicts that by the year 2000, justification for availability investments will transition from optional to mandatory. "We expect that through 2002, 75 percent of electronic commerce applications will use clusters to reduce planned and unplanned downtime," said Donna Scott, a Gartner Group analyst.
IBM and Vision Solutions have been engaged for nearly a year in a joint development project to provide high system availability for DB2 Multisystem for OS/400. DB2 Multisystem connects up to 32 AS/400s in a parallel database architecture with a combined storage capacity of nearly 32 terabytes. Parallelism capabilities are a key component of a clustering solution. Vision is also developing the Java-based management interface that provides graphical tools for node configuration and workload balancing. This product is scheduled for release in early 1998.
Founded in 1990, Vision Solutions develops, markets, installs and supports world class replication and propagation products for use in continuous information availability and scalability, cross-platform data access and management, data warehousing and the Internet. The company has headquarters in Irvine, and distributes its products globally through direct sales and business partners in over 130 countries. Vision Solutions has been designated a Premier Business Partner by IBM and maintains a close working relationship with IBM Development Laboratories in Rochester, Minn. Vision Solutions is also a member of the Microsoft Alliance for Data Warehousing as well as a certified Microsoft Solutions Provider and SNA Server Specialist.