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Success Story
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The Datacenter Behind Gossamer-Threads Hosting Services Powered by Appro Servers |
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Download this Success Story ----
The Challenge
In 1995 Gossamer Threads launched with a focus on creating quality web applications. As years passed, Gossamer Threads experienced a fair share of hosting providers running their applications, most of which fell short of their expectations and needs. Realizing that their customers deserved more, Gossamer Threads expanded their business to include hosting services. Based on their extensive knowledge and expertise of web software, and their experience with many different hosting platforms, Gossamer Threads developed a high quality, top performance, and secure solution so that clients could host websites in a fast, scalable and reliable environment. No longer did clients have to worry about the technical side of things; Gossamer Threads would take care of that, so they could focus on running their business.
“The first order of business was to choose a server vendor, one that would not lock us in due to proprietary hardware and components but deliver the flexibility we would need to handle the growth we anticipated,” said Alex Krohn, Founder. “Our requirements were pretty straight forward; we needed a solution that would be very reliable, flexible, scalable and cost effective. It had to be built upon standard industry components and take cost of ownership into account. We wanted a server solution that would have a long life span and be simple to scale and cluster. Our market differentiator had to be the reliability and performance of our hosting solution.”
Gossamer Threads knew that success depended on delivering server resources that would keep client websites and applications up and running. In a 24 x 7 web environment, downtime is not acceptable for mission critical, customer facing applications. The Gossamer Host platform aimed to rise to the challenge and deliver to customers a total, single-point solution with unprecedented Gossamer Support.
The Solution
Gossamer Threads evaluation started at the heart of any server – the processor. The top contenders under consideration were the two leading processor manufacturers of the world; Intel and AMD. Keeping in mind their goals and objectives, Gossamer Threads ran an exhaustive number of comparative tests and benchmarks to determine which processor would best suit their needs, and time and time again, AMD came out on top. The conclusion was that the AMD architecture not only performed brilliantly, but also delivered lower total cost of ownership – a key factor in Gossamer Threads’ decision. Gossamer Threads now uses AMD Athlon™ and AMD Opteron™ processors exclusively in their data centers.
Gossamer Threads considered building their own servers, buying from a “white box” vendor, and were also entertaining proposals from Appro, Hewlett Packard and IBM. After much deliberation, they ruled out building their own servers or buying from a “white box” vendor because of the lack of consistency from one server to the other, not to mention the effort and time it would take to create and manage such an environment. HP and IBM offered great solutions but were quickly ruled out once Gossamer Threads realized each vendor would lock them into a specific platform. In addition, IBM and HP servers were ultimately deemed to be expensive to own and manage. The Appro package met their requirements head on – servers based on AMD Opteron ™ processors, a consistent and unified system architecture, outstanding performance, and cost effective to purchase and manage.
“From the sales process to the ease of implementation, Appro exceeded our expectations,” Krohn stated. “Appro is a great company to work with. They listened to our requirements, and offered an AMD Opteron™ based solution that impressed us. Their products stand up to the test of time. Five years later, the first groups of servers purchased in 2002 are still in service and running strong.”
Based upon Appro’s excellent track record and outstanding products, Gossamer Threads decided to go exclusively with Appro and has grown its global server farm to over 250 Appro servers made up of Appro 1U and Appro HyperBlade servers.
“We've been very impressed with the build quality of the systems. They are very well put together and easy to work on,” Krohn added. “We purchase servers pre-configured from Appro, and are able to easily provision every new server within an hour from unboxing it, to installing the o/s, applications and it’s live – it is just that simple.”
Gossamer Threads understands how quickly client resources need to scale to meet customer need. With many customers utilizing clusters of 5 – 15 servers, having the available resources and load balancing has been key to Gossamer Threads’ success. The ability to dynamically scale customer server allocations in response to growing customer need is a significant competitive advantage. Since Appro servers are easily clustered together, adding additional capacity is very easy to do and can be done on the fly without disrupting the customer.
The Results
Gossamer Threads customer base keeps growing and its global footprint continues to expand. Appro servers provide the infrastructure that fuels Gossamer Threads growth, keeping its customer satisfied with their hosted solutions.
Link to Gossamer Threads's Blog about their datacenter:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/blog/the-data-centre-behind-gossamer-host/
About Gossamer Threads, Inc.
Gossamer Threads (www.gossamer-threads.com), headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, offers web based software, custom programming and hosting services for industry leading global customers. Founded in 1995, Gossamer Threads sells software that powers many complex database driven websites including: email management systems, community portals, and directory services. 250 Appro servers across Vancouver, Toronto and London, England form the backbone of Gossamer Threads managed hosting division.
Gossamer Threads products and services are relied upon by leaders in IT, telecommunications, media and financial sectors, as well as government agencies and higher education facilities. Fortune's Top 100 notable clients include: Cisco, Verizon, Lockheed Martin and Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Nortel Networks, Sears Roebuck, Earthlink, Fidelity, British Telecom, Goldman Sachs, and Harvard University. From its beginnings in North America, Gossamer Threads has expanded its operations to serve clients on over six continents and in sixty countries.
About Appro
Appro accelerates technical applications and business results unlocking the value of IT for the high-performance and enterprise computing markets environment through differentiated performance balanced architecture, open standards, and engineering expertise. Appro is a leading developer of innovative, high-performance, density-managed servers, cluster-solutions, storage subsystems, and high-end workstations for the high-performance and enterprise computing markets. Appro’s headquarters is in Milpitas, CA with an R&D and manufacturing partner in Asia and a sales and service office in Houston, Texas. To learn more go to www.appro.com.
Appro International, Inc. All rights reserved. Appro and the Appro logos are registered trademarks of Appro International, Inc. Other company products or service names are the property of their respective owners.
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Appro is focusing its product design to address the HPC cluster
market and key customer requirements including system management,
high availability and price/performance for HPC applications.
Appro has shown the ability to win highly sought-after, large-scale
HPC deals positioning the company to benefit from strong market
growth that IDC projects through 2012.
Earl
Joseph,
IDC Program Vice President, Technical Computing
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Customer Quote
“Appro not only offered us a cost effective solution but
they also improved our required technical specification through
better reliability, greater fault tolerance and redundancy as
well as more flexibility with regards to system scalability.”
Bob Bell,
Technical Director, ING Renault F1 Team
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