Cluster Computing:

TBWA/CHIAT/DAY DEPLOYS CANDERA SCE 510 CLUSTER FOR SAN MOVE

Candera, Inc. announced that TBWA/Chiat/Day, a leading advertising agency in the U.S., has deployed the Candera SCE 510 Cluster and low-cost Serial ATA (SATA) RAID technology as a primary storage solution in its Los Angeles office. The solution has enabled the company to successfully move from a direct-attached storage (DAS) infrastructure to a storage area network (SAN), creating a scalable approach that can grow incrementally as needed without introducing more storage management complexity. TBWA/Chiat/Day has combined the SCE 510 Cluster with two Apple Xserve ATA RAID arrays -- a cost-effective solution for expanding and allocating storage without sacrificing performance or reliability.

"Creativity creates ideas. Ideas create content. Content is the center of our business -- our 500 users need on-going, reliable access to that content throughout the day," said Richard Kruszewski, network administrator for TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles. "Initially, we believed that only Fibre Channel storage solutions could deliver the performance and reliability to satisfy our primary storage needs. Candera proved us wrong with a highly robust Serial ATA solution at a dramatically reduced price point."

Until now, TBWA/Chiat/Day had used a DAS approach with multiple islands of storage that could not be centrally managed or provisioned. Available capacity could not be properly allocated, leading to wasted capacity for some users and shortages for others. Their new Candera solution provides 8 TB of raw storage that is accessed by approximately 500 professionals in the company's Los Angeles office. It will be used as primary storage for a variety of data types, including Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files, as well as high- resolution images and video. TBWA/Chiat/Day was so impressed with Candera and the SCE 510 Cluster that they have also purchased an additional larger system for deployment in the company's New York office. That system will be used to aggregate seven Apple Xserve RAID arrays, providing 21 TB of raw storage.

"More than 70 percent of the current data center capacity is overserved by expensive Fibre Channel storage," said Stephen Terlizzi, vice president of marketing and business development for Candera. "For most business-critical data, the combination of Candera and ATA storage offers the optimum price and performance. With Candera and its products, Serial ATA will become the predominant storage medium for a majority of the capacity in the data center."

Until now, high availability and reliability features were only offered on the most expensive solutions from monolithic storage suppliers. Candera, with its SCE 510 network storage controller and ATA appliance, has merged enterprise- class storage with Serial ATA economics.

About the SCE 510 Cluster

The Candera SCE 510 network storage controller creates multiple tiers of storage to effectively give rise to Serial ATA as primary storage in the data center. This greatly simplifies management, lowers costs, improves service levels and enhances the productivity of storage administrators. The SCE 510 Cluster is the first to bring enterprise-class functionality such as full active-active high availability for continuous access to data; and full reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features to low-cost Serial ATA deployments. The cluster also provides exceptional error tracing and handling in high load environments, and superior SAN interoperability through intelligent object-based device characterization. Candera provides its customers with world-class technical support through IBM Global Services, offering 24x7 customer service and help desk support.