Weather Channel Manages Storm of Data With Help From Brocade Storage Area Network Faster, More Accurate Forecasting for Millions of Viewers Worldwide
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Tue May 18 08:22:00 2004 EST
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 18, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ --
When average consumers
turn to The Weather Channel's broadcast and online forecast services, they
probably aren't thinking about the huge quantities of computer data and
sophisticated computer models used to assure fast and accurate updates. But
thanks to Storage Area Networks (SAN) technology from Brocade Communications
Systems, Inc. (Brocade(R)) (Nasdaq: BRCD), The Weather Channel recently was
able to run its weather forecasting models 20 percent faster.
"We not only process weather data faster, but we can also increase the
number of processing cycles we run because it's faster to run each cycle,"
explains Vicki Hamilton, vice president of Shared Services and IT Operations
at The Weather Channel Companies. "More cycles means more accurate
predictions, and that translates into a competitive advantage for us."
Based in Atlanta, The Weather Channel delivers weather reports to 95
million cable subscribers in North and South America and has the capability to
transmit thousands of customized forecasts simultaneously. It also features
current conditions and forecasts online for more than 77,000 locations
worldwide. Its website is among the world's top 20 sites for frequency of
access, with more than 14 million different users viewing the site every
month.
SANs Support Reliable Access to Data
Surface observations are taken each hour at airports, military bases, and
naval air stations, then the data is fed into computer weather-modeling
programs to produce surface weather maps. To create forecasts, streaming
terabytes of data from atmospheric readings are continually fed into
sophisticated computer models that run multiple times to refine the accuracy
of weather predictions. To achieve better data availability and reliability
for the massive quantities of data it takes to create and broadcast weather
predictions, The Weather Channel networked its storage devices with servers to
create a SAN based on Brocade SilkWorm(R) switches.
"Weather never quits," said Hamilton. "Having reliable access to vast
amounts of data is crucial to us. Our Brocade-based SAN gave us the
availability, utter reliability and productivity we require in an environment
that cannot tolerate downtime."
Over time, the storage team developed additional SANs so that more
applications could take advantage of SAN benefits. Within a couple of years,
Hamilton's team had built six separate SANs and predicted the need for more
due to the demand for key applications to became connected to networked
storage. However, they could not share storage resources between the isolated
SANs, and Hamilton anticipated that management would become even more complex
and time consuming with the addition of more SANs.
SAN Consolidation
Rather than continuing to build more isolated SAN "islands," Hamilton made
a strategic decision to consolidate the existing SANs into a single large SAN
with capacity for future growth.
Kevin Gungiah, director of systems administration at The Weather Channel
Companies, notes, "Our local Brocade engineer, Brocade labs, and my internal
SAN Administrators helped to design a core-to edge SAN that allowed us to
expand and grow our SAN. The transition was cost-effective and completely met
our requirements. We were able to transfer applications to the new SAN
without affecting users-the transition was quick, easy, and transparent."
The new Brocade-based SAN significantly improves the speed at which The
Weather Channel can build its digital forecasts, allowing the station to run
its data through the models 20 percent faster than it could previously, and
ensuring even better accuracy. The New SAN also improved resource utilization
and greatly simplified storage management, freeing IT resources to work on
other projects.
In addition, even with many more key applications added to the larger SAN,
there is space to allow flexible, scalable growth as needed for the future,
while providing a more secure environment through the use of redundant
fabrics.
About Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
Brocade offers the industry's leading intelligent platform for networking
storage. The world's leading systems, applications, and storage vendors have
selected Brocade to provide a networking foundation for their SAN solutions.
The Brocade SilkWorm(R) family of fabric switches and software is designed to
optimize data availability and storage and server resources in the enterprise.
Using Brocade solutions, companies can simplify the implementation of storage
area networks, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage
environments, and improve network and application efficiency. For more
information, visit the Brocade website at www.brocade.com or contact the
company at info@brocade.com.
NOTE: Brocade, the Brocade B weave logo, Secure Fabric OS, and SilkWorm
are registered trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the
United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of
IBM Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands, products,
or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to
identify, products or services of their respective owners.
SOURCE Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
media, Lee Davis, +1-408-333-5177, or ldavis@brocade.com; or
investors, Shirley Stacy, +1-408-333-5752, or sstacy@brocade.com, both of
Brocade Communications; or Wendy Lewis of FS Communications, +1-650-691-1488,
or wendy@fscomm.com, for Brocade Communications
brocade.com
Copyright (C) 2004 PR Newswire. All rights reserved.
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