THIS IS ONLY PART OF NEWS RELEASE
Channel Partners and Compaq Deliver Enterprise Storage Solutions; Partners Demonstrate Compaq's Storage Leadership Across Multiple Industries
4/8/2002 7:01:00 AM
HOUSTON, Apr 8, 2002 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- As the enterprise storage market leader, Compaq Computer Corporation (CPQ) reports that enterprise storage revenue gained through collaboration with United States channel partners during the past six months totals more than $300 million, clearly demonstrating that Compaq's strategy of providing innovative, comprehensive storage solutions to customers via its channel partners is gaining momentum.
"Companies are looking for ways to consolidate their data storage in systems designed to facilitate easy access, improve data management, and provide business continuity with better security and extensive scalability," said Mark Gonzalez, vice president Compaq North America, Enterprise Storage Group. "Today, Compaq's Business Partners are providing customers with the knowledge, expertise, and StorageWorks by Compaq technology to offer a wide range of centralized solutions that can be tailored to specific requirements."
Storage Solutions for Manufacturing and Service
Mission Linen Supply specializes in the sale and rental of textiles to hotels, restaurants, and other establishments. Mission Linen worked with CompuVision, a Santa Barbara-based systems integrator with 15 years of experience. CompuVision recommended industry-standard Compaq ProLiant servers and StorageWorks solutions to build a modular, thin-client information architecture supporting IP.
The new network uses VPN technology to streamline communication among Mission Linen facilities. To store and manage business data, Mission Linen implemented two storage-area networks (SANs). Each SAN includes StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 systems with three disk enclosures. One SAN, dedicated to file and print sharing, contains 432 GB of capacity. The other SAN supports the SAP R/3 infrastructure and affords 865 GB of capacity.
"By consolidating storage in a single enclosure, Mission Linen can more efficiently configure, manage, and maintain its storage resources," said John J. Hunt, president and CEO of CompuVision. "The thin-client infrastructure allows all the servers and software applications to be housed in Mission Linen's data center."
CompuVision installed and configured the SANs and spearheaded the creation of LANs and WANs to connect 50 offices in five states -- all of which have 24x7 access to the Compaq servers and storage devices.
"Thanks to Compaq and CompuVision, we're first to market with self-service business applications and a robust VPN. CompuVision designed a simple, useful end-to-end network. This will help us compete more effectively in the years ahead," said Dick Bergstrom, director of IT, Mission Linen Supply.
As competition heats up in the service industry, many mid-sized firms are deploying enterprise-scale information systems to gain an edge over their competitors. Supported by industry-standard ProLiant servers and StorageWorks solutions, Mission Linen now has a versatile information architecture that supports advanced communications among dozens of remote facilities, paving the way for future growth.
Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN) -- the world's largest poultry and meat processing company -- chose Compaq AlphaServer and StorageWorks to host its mission-critical sales and distribution applications. (See related news release: "Tyson Foods Chooses Compaq High Availability Solution for Mission Critical Applications.") Tyson expects this IT architecture investment to help it integrate its various business units while speeding up some of its business processes and positioning itself for future growth.
"We needed an IT architecture that would enable us to quickly and seamlessly port our mission-critical sales and distribution applications while providing the highest availability and data integrity," said Gary Cooper, CIO, Tyson Foods, Inc. "Our desired solution also needed to easily scale as we integrated additional business units. Compaq met our mission critical needs while providing a painless migration path from our legacy systems."
IT infrastructure architect Avnet Enterprise Solutions -- a Compaq business partner -- was responsible for system configuration and initial system setup. The production platform includes a three-node AlphaServer ES40 cluster (with four processors on each node) running OpenVMS. The AlphaServer cluster is attached to an MA8000 StorageWorks scalable SAN, which allows additional disks, controllers, and cache to be added incrementally when required.
"Compaq has a rich history in providing high availability systems," said Mark Zerbe, president, Avnet Enterprise Solutions. "Avnet Enterprise Solutions' long-standing partnership with Compaq and our focus on Compaq hardware and software solutions means we can offer customers the kind of expertise and value they're looking for."
Comark, of Bloomingdale, IL -- one of the largest privately held IT solutions providers in the U.S. -- designed and configured a 2.8 TB SAN for a medium-sized manufacturing company that recently acquired another company and needed to consolidate systems to accommodate the rapid growth for the customer's Oracle production database. The IT effort also included 50 industry-standard Compaq ProLiant servers running Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Novell software. The new Compaq SAN allows for upgrades on the fly and offers a more scalable solution to accommodate future growth.
Vito Valenzano, director of high performance systems and storage for Comark, said: "This is a great example of how a channel partner can bring value to both the customer and the vendor. Comark provides value to its customers through its relationship with vendors as well as intellectual capital required to design solutions that meet the customer's needs."
cbs.marketwatch.com |
