Compaq ProLiant 1000 Architecting and Deploying High-Availability Solutions - Page 10

Architecting and Deploying High-Availability Solutions 10 Consider these compelling facts: Among customers with the highest levels of availability requirements - those with an hourly cost of outage of $100,000/hour or more- the choice is Compaq by a factor of nearly three times that of our nearest competitor. Our line of availability platforms is recognized2 as the most robust set of offerings in the industry. And through Compaq integration programs, we are extending the high levels of availability found in these highend servers to the Microsoft Windows NT environment. Compaq is the leader and major driving force in the acceleration of Windows NT Server as an enterprise solutions platform. Deployment Options As we have seen, the process of architecting a high-availability environment involves the understanding and analysis of multiple factors, many of which may be unique to your organization. While the majority of a solution might be based on Compaq's wide range of off-the-shelf products, unique factors require unique deployment solutions attained through some level of tailoring or customization. The CustomSystems organization at Compaq specializes in tailoring off-the-shelf products to meet complex needs. Pre-packaged Systems Most vendors ship systems with little or no up-front testing. But Compaq is different. Our Ready to Go clusters, for instance, are factory-configured and tested solutions. They eliminate the need for the consolidating, compiling, testing, and tuning steps typically associated with building and debugging a complex system from scratch. As a result, cluster solutions are online faster and ready to run your choice of applications. Tailored Solutions High-availability systems interoperate within increasingly complex software, hardware, storage, and networking environments. Your requirements may go beyond a standard solution. In that case, the proven engineering and testing principles employed by Compaq deliver a reassuring measure of certainty that your systems will work reliably in the real world and meet your definition of mission critical. For example, we can help you determine how your application will perform on large-scale configurations. Working together, we can do a one-time assembly and test in our labs to validate the entire system solution. You'll have the answers you need prior to committing valuable time and precious resources. What's more, if you're developing or planning to deploy a specialized application, we can give you a detailed look at all or part of your development efforts. This enables you to recognize any potential problems and compare design alternatives. A key advantage to you is Compaq's ability to integrate the complete system in our factories. This ensures that you receive a fully functioning, characterized, and tested system that is ready to be installed and turned on as soon as it arrives at your door. Factory integration reduces your risk and accelerates your implementation speed. What's more, the disruption to your operation that might be caused by extended installation, testing, and pre-functioning repair is greatly reduced. The result for you is reduced risk and a high degree of confidence that the combination of applications and enterprise computing platforms you plan to deploy will work together to meet your mission-critical requirements. Service and Support Options Compaq also offers our customers one of the most powerful IT service and support organizations in the world -- including 27,000 IT experts in 114 countries and a network of over 30,000 highly skilled resellers. We offer a suite of proactive and reactive services that will keep your Windows NT, OpenVMS, UNIX, Intel, Alpha, NonStop Himalaya, Integrity/XC, and Integrity S-series environments highly available and operating at peak performance. Our service capabilities include 2The Real McCoys: Enterprise Clustering. The Standish Group International, Inc. 1998 Product Analysis, MCSC: Can this Wolf Lead the Pack? DataQuest, April 27, 1998 ECG064/1198