Associa Gains Major Ground In Servicing Community Associations Nationwide Using Pillar Data's Unified Axiom Storage System

Dallas-based Leader in Community Association Management Houses Critical Exchange and SQL Server Data while Leveraging I/O Prioritization to Ensure Reliable, Robust Performance

News Facts

• Associa, the leader in community association management, has implemented the Pillar Axiom 600 unified storage system to support a major consolidation and virtualization effort encompassing 250 virtual machines and more than 100 TBs of storage capacity.
• As the nation's largest company devoted to the management of community associations, Associa provides thousands of users with immediate access to mission-critical data, including Microsoft Exchange, SQL-based ERP and SharePoint applications, as part of an overarching goal to deliver the highest levels of customer service and hands-on support.
• To better control constant business growth, which resulted in 30-percent annual spikes in data storage, the company migrated to VMware ESX Server and sought a unified storage system capable of consolidating all crucial applications on a single platform.
• In evaluating options, Associa determined that upgrading its legacy EMC platform would require multiple storage arrays while managing a system from 3PAR would necessitate professional services for even minor configuration changes, such as adding capacity. In contrast, Pillar provided a singular platform architected to adapt easily to dynamic environments with thin provisioning, I/O prioritization and seamless scalability.
• According to Associa, Pillar's system-wide Quality of Service enables better provisioning and management of its increasingly virtualized environment while improving business agility and operational efficiencies.

Streamlined, Scalable Pillar Storage Offers Room to Grow

• Associa reports that provisioning, maintaining and managing its Axiom 600 are straightforward processes that don't require special training. Adding more storage was handled easily and without any downtime or business disruption.
• The ability to take advantage of differentiated services from multiple LUNs striped across high-capacity spindles enables Associa to achieve the highest levels of performance and utilization.
• Seamless scalability ensures that Associa can scale over time to keep pace with continuous business growth.
• The flexibility to mix and match drive types helps Associa fine-tune performance as needed. The company currently has a blend of SATA and Fibre Channel drives with more than 100 TBs of capacity. Plans are underway to add Solid State Drives to maximize performance of vital SQL databases.

Supporting Quotes
From Jon Krueger, Director of IT Infrastructure for Associa:

• "We were impressed with how the Pillar platform leverages a common pool of storage to provision capacity while system-wide Quality of Service enables us to assign performance levels based on our application needs. This approach was highly compatible with the demands of our dynamic environment."
• "Growing our Pillar system is easy, as we rely on the intuitive user interface and Axiom One Storage Manager to set policies for provisioning storage based on dynamic performance prioritization. You don't have to do manual computations as the system conveys what you need to know."
• "We really liked how easy it was to add another Slammer when we wanted to extend port capacity. We were able to install a second FC Slammer over a weekend without problems, so now we have one storage controller dedicated to high-performance, Exchange transaction data alongside backup and archive data. We then have another controller assigned to our virtualized environment; we couldn't have achieved this level of multi-tenancy on a different platform."
• "Pillar Axiom enables us to be very agile in supporting critical applications while assuring tight control over QoS and performance. In doing so, we're meeting business objectives without having to buy more storage."

Resources

• More on Pillar's unified storage system
  http://www.pillardata.com/products/san-nas-unified-storage
• More on Pillar's solution for server virtualization
  http://www.pillardata.com/solutions/server-virtualization/
• More on Pillar's 80-percent utilization guarantee
  http://www.pillardata.com/innovations/storage-utilization/
• More Pillar resources
  http://www.pillardata.com/resources/
• More Pillar news
  http://www.pillardata.com/about-pillar/media-center

About Associa
Building successful communities for more than 30 years, Associa is the leader in community association management and serves its clients with local knowledge, national resources and comprehensive expertise. Based in Dallas, Associa and its 8,000 employees operate more than 100 branch offices in the United States and Mexico. For more information, visit www.associaonline.com and www.associacares.com.

About Pillar Data Systems
Founded in 2001, Pillar Data Systems develops Application-Aware Storage systems for midsize and enterprise organizations. With the highest utilization rates in the storage industry, the Pillar Axiom solution is the most efficient storage system on the market today. The Pillar Axiom cuts administrative time and total cost of ownership by more than 50 percent as well as provides the only storage system that can differentiate services based on application priority. Designed from the ground up as the only true Application-Aware Storage system, the Pillar Axiom allows users to match multiple application characteristics to the appropriate service levels within a single storage platform. Pillar Data Systems is privately funded by Tako Ventures, LLC, the venture arm of Larry Ellison.

The company is headquartered at 2840 Junction Avenue, San Jose, California 95134. For more information, visit http://www.pillardata.com.

SOURCE: Pillar Data Systems