The launch of Computacenter's Solutions Centre marks a major move forward for the company's customers. Now they can set up a complete replica of their proposed infrastructures and test their performance under real conditions, without first having to buy and install the equipment.

The Solutions Centre offers an exceptionally broad suite of hardware and applications, and although it is new, many of its principles have been tried and tested in action with Computacenter's customers. One customer that took part in this process was Credit Suisse First Boston, whose Securities division used Computacenter to test out its approach to storage.

The proof of the concept…

Banking, like all large enterprises, faces a continual challenge - how to implement complex infrastructures that can cope with the relentless tide of data that needs to be stored, but without risking huge sums of money in the process.

Credit Suisse First Boston came to terms with this issue during the summer of last year when it set out to implement a storage solution to serve data to its equities division, and mirror this data to a disaster recovery center. The bank is committed to a multi-vendor strategy that includes Sun, HDS, EMC and Compaq, and runs applications on both Sun's Solaris and Microsoft NT operating systems, so was faced with several alternative options.

As Frank Reid, Director of CSFB, and European Head of Securities Infrastructure explains, this strategy calls for a detailed understanding of the issues around interoperability of different systems. "We have initiatives in place to achieve major global server and storage consolidation. We decided that Storage Area Network (SAN) would offer our required levels of business continuity, so worked with Computacenter and their partners Sun, EMC, HDS and Compaq to define and evaluate a solution."

Additional complications

One additional complication that faces the bank is that it operates over 1,500 Sun servers ranging from Netra T1s to E10,000s running Solaris from vs. 2.5 through to 2.8. Although many vendors of NT products now offer integration with Solaris, this is normally only confined to the later versions, but CSFB, like most UNIX houses, has a lot of key applications that have not been re-written for those environments.

"All of these constraints meant that we were going to need a very sophisticated solution, which would call for a high capital investment," Frank continues. "Naturally we were keen to reduce the risk in making this investment, so were very interested in the concept of a no-risk guarantee."

No-risk guarantee

The guarantee came in the form of a 'proof of concept' laboratory, which Computacenter set up to evaluate solutions to the bank's problems in a live environment. This used many of the principles and tools now embodied in the Solutions Centre to give the Bank a facility to replicate its environment and test different vendors' solutions with real data under real-life conditions.

"We thought it was an excellent idea," comments Frank Reid. "It effectively allowed us to leverage Computacenter's facilities to benchmark CSFB applications both offsite and onsite in potential configurations of all platforms. From the results, we would be able to make qualified procurement decisions based on real world test results on different SAN configurations with no initial risk to us."

Close-knit team

The project called for a major team effort, not only from Computacenter and its hardware partners, but also from CSFB, who seconded a number of technologists from Global Engineering and Securities IT in both the UK and New York participated in the testing programme.

"We faithfully reproduced the proposed set-up, even down to having a four kilometre fibre connection between the two storage units," recalls Martin Rees, manager of the Solutions Centre. "As well as the storage options we set up a network of seven different Sun servers, running individual architectures to reflect the variety of the bank's infrastructure. The servers were distributed across two virtual 'sites' connected by fibre. Then we loaded Veritas software to provide cluster and failover and HDS TrueCopy to demonstrate business continuity, as well as ShadowImage to hold point-in-time copies that facilitate back-ups."

The first test the system was asked to achieve was running of one of the bank's Line of Business applications using Solaris 2.5.1. It was a very successful demonstration and as Frank Reid confirms, " It achieved significant performance improvements over previous tests."

Extended life

The proof of concept laboratory more than demonstrated its value to Credit Suisse First Boston by proving that the proposed technology solution would work in real life conditions. Frank Reid believes it was an exercise from which both sides gained a lot of benefit. "In a way it was an effective benchmarking exercise for us both. We were able to identify and benchmark a technology platform and prove to ourselves that it would be a worthwhile investment at no risk to the bank. In turn, Computacenter was able to benchmark the principles and practicalities of its Solutions Centre in a controlled live environment.

"I believe the Solutions Centre will offer a tremendous benefit to companies," he continues. "It has true multi-vendor capabilities. It includes every aspect of a solution, even down to the cabling, and lets you test out the most complex infrastructures. If a solution doesn't work immediately the costs to an organisation can be huge. Not just the engineer time, but also the knock-on costs of disruption. The Solutions Centre means that now you don't have to take that risk."

 

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