Carbon60 Networks Improves Next-Generation Cloud Platform Performance by up to 20x and Reduces Maintenance Costs
 
 

Carbon60 Networks Improves Next-Generation Cloud Platform Performance by up to 20x and Reduces Maintenance Costs

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Carbon60 Networks is an IT services company that supports the development and delivery of business-critical Websites and applications. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the organization strives to provide the highest levels of reliability, security, and technical support to a customer base that includes Canada’s largest media and telecommunications companies and a number of high-profile public sector organizations. A key component of Carbon60’s business is its recently launched enterprise-class cloud computing platform.

When Carbon60 began engineering its new cloud computing infrastructure in 2011, it already had many years experience building and operating a first-generation cloud computing platform. The company wanted to ensure that it addressed the original platform’s shortcomings in the second-generation solution, which included information input/output (I/O) bottlenecks and a lack of a high-performance storage area network (SAN). The organization also needed to maintain the platform’s affordability while meeting its performance goals.

Fortunately, Carbon60 was aware of two game-changing innovative technologies for supporting cloud storage infrastructures: Oracle’s Pillar Axiom and Oracle Fabric Interconnect. These high-performance and affordable solutions addressed the company’s cloud computing needs and ensured that the next-generation cloud platform met the business requirements of Carbon60’s business users.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Carbon60 Networks

  • “Oracle’s combined Pillar Axiom and Oracle Virtual Networking solution is a superior cloud computing platform. It can handle diverse and demanding application workloads very reliably, scale seamlessly, and reduce management and maintenance costs.” – Kelly Beardmore, Chief Executive Officer, Carbon60 Networks.

  • Develop a highly scalable next-generation cloud computing platform, improving storage services to meet performance requirements for enterprise customers that include major Canadian media and public sector outlets
  • Integrate a SAN into the cloud computing platform that enables linear scaling for both storage capacity and I/O performance to increase affordability and scalability without compromising the performance of Web hosting, storage, and network resource services
  • Increase ability to manage quality of service on the cloud platform’s storage fabric to better prioritize traffic and enhance the performance of software-as-a-service offerings for applications, such as WordPress
  • Reduce complexity and cost of managing multiple, physical, Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks while significantly improving network throughput

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Developed a next-generation cloud computing platform, based on Oracle’s Pillar Axiom 600 and Oracle Fabric Interconnect with dynamic servers, networks, and storage connections to enable the deployment of secure, cloud-based services that support business processes and priorities
  • Implemented Oracle’s Pillar Axiom 600, a highly scalable, modular, enterprise SAN storage system, which is built to expand with customer data growth to ensure a high quality of service and help customers meet business requirements
  • Gained the ability to add storage capacity quickly without impacting service, as well as to simplified system management, thanks to Pillar Axiom 600’s innovative modular architecture, exceeding pre-existing scalability, performance, and quality of service management requirements
  • Improved cloud platform performance, providing up to 20x higher throughput, compared to the first-generation platform, enhancing solution reliability for cloud services customers
  • Reduced overall network management costs significantly, thanks to the virtualization capabilities of Oracle Fabric Interconnect, which enables central configuration of all virtual networks
  • Launched a second cloud computing platform in the summer of 2012, completing the first virtual machine deployment on a production-ready cloud, deploying in just seven working days

Why Oracle

“We wanted to engineer a new cloud computing platform that effectively addressed the challenges of our first-generation product. To achieve the performance and scalability gains we desired while maintaining affordability, the clear choice for us was Oracle’s Pillar Axiom 600 and Oracle Fabric Interconnect. These innovative technologies have provided the technical capabilities we need while exceeding our performance expectations,” said Kelly Beardmore, chief executive officer, Carbon60 Networks.

Implementation Process

“As part of the selection process, Carbon60 conducted an extended proof-of-concept that included three months of rigorous system performance and reliability testing. The engineers for the technology worked diligently to correct any system glitches and certify the solution, leading to a final product that exceeded performance expectations,” said Darcy Nadon, director of engineering, Carbon60 Networks.