Case: Efficient hybrid cloud solution by Solvinity The ANP Image Bank is part of the Dutch News Agency ANP. Since 1934 ANP has not only been providing the public and private sectors with news in the form of text, but also in the form of photographs, videos, radio, teletext, and infographics. The development of the internet, social media, smartphones, and tablets has resulted in a spectacular increase in the volume and rate of news distribution. The ANP Image Bank currently has more than 10 million photographs on file. Furthermore, every week it has to delete tens of thousands of images from its archive in order to stay lean and mean. When even a single photograph can take up a dozen MBs, then the storage capacity required for 10 million photographs is enormous. After a competitive tendering procedure, ANP eventually chose Solvinity to handle the hosting and management of the ANP Image Bank Environment, which covers a total of seven different ANP photographic websites. Solvinity is the new name for ASP4all and Bitbrains. A new name calls for a new identity, which is why existing customer case studies of both companies have been formatted to the Solvinity brand. 1
Need for modernization When ANP had to renew its Windows 2003 licences, it decided it was time to take a critical look at its whole IT environment. In addition to the modernisation of the entire infrastructure, ANP also wanted to substantially reduce the structural cost of its hosting and storage services. Solvinity had already set up an initial IT environment for ANP back in 2009, which ANP was very satisfied with. This specialist in managed hosting from the Netherlands therefore seemed the obvious choice to take over the role of general coordinator. There was an urgent need for modernisation because so much of the original hardware and software components had become outdated. Since the completion of the initial environment back in 2009, cloud service providers have increased the efficiency of their operations significantly, and thus the prices for public and private cloud storage services have plunged dramatically over the years. It was therefore only logical that ANP Image Bank explicitly asked Solvinity to take a good look at all the available cloud options of Windows Azure and Amazon as well, so a comparison could be made in terms of pricing and performance. Solvinity was also asked to offer competitive prices for virtual servers, and above all for storage. Superior user experience Mark Westerhoff, ICT Manager at ANP: Availability, redundancy, reliability, high transfer rate, and superior user experience are the critical performance indicators for the service provision of the ANP Image Bank. Weekly SQL maintenance, however, has too much of a negative impact on the uptime of the service. Journalists looking for a specific photograph want lightning-fast response times, which nowadays are measured in milliseconds instead of seconds. If a website takes too long to load or respond, people simply stop using it. The performance up until now was okay, but no more than that. In order to identify the best solution for rapid presentation, uploading, storage, and safe archiving of files, ANP Image Bank divided its photographic collection into two categories. The designation ANP means the files come from within the company (Archive). The designation External means the files come from outside third parties, who can always re-supply the content in the event of any accidental loss of data. ANP expects the number of photographs kept on file in a variety of different high resolutions will only increase in the future. The rapid publication of so-called thumbs and previews with a watermark of the photographs is a crucial factor in achieving superior user experience. What is Database as a Service? Database as a Service is basically very simple: access to functionality on the basis of actual usage. With DBaaS, businesses using Solvinity can get access to complete MS SQL 2012 Enterprise-level database functionality on a subscription basis, including all the licenses, hardware, infrastructure, and security. This means high-end functionality is now available to businesses that simply couldn t afford it in the past. In the multi-tenant environment, certain hardware and software components within the infrastructure are shared between multiple clients. The individual databases are logically partitioned off from each other, so that the data of each company can only be accessed by the company itself. Now businesses are able to use the database platform, but they no longer have to worry about the administrative and physical Management of the IT environment - that is the responsibility of Solvinity. 2
Redundancy: one is not enough From now on, ANP Image Bank will be using Amazon storage services (S3 in order to keep down the cost of file storage). Solvinity combines the hosting services with the storage services of Amazon, and acts as a broker for ANP so that ANP gets the lowest possible storage price. The guaranteed availability is 99.5%. For the server infrastructure, Solvinity uses Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). This datacenter platform integrates server, network, storage, and virtualisation capacity in a single energyefficient system. The virtual servers are based on VMware vsphere, so that in combination with UCS it is possible to create a complete virtual datacenter across the two datacenters of Solvinity. This has the advantage of improved availability, excellent scalability, and thus optimal flexibility. It has also provided direct benefits for the ANP Image Bank. Solvinity doesn t cut any corners when it comes to the uptime of its infrastructure Because 90% of the website visitors of the ANP Image Bank come from the Netherlands, a decision was taken to handle the generation of the thumbs and previews of the photograph with a watermark directly from the datacenter of Solvinity, where they are stored on high-speed machines. The open-source Nginx web servers combined with a load balancer are ideal for the rapid presentation of this type of static content. The high resolution photographs and previews of ANP photographs are stored on a virtual Windows file server within the datacenter of Solvinity. The least expensive storage variant was chosen (N1 = SATA disc, including a daily snapshot on-site). For back-up purposes, the ANP photographs are synchronised with a Windows file server in the other datacenter. Solvinity makes a daily back-up of all the data with back-up to disc. Back-ups run faster this way, and the back-up of the previous evening is available both locally and off-site. The files in the other datacenter can only be accessed on a read-only basis. For the synchronisation process, Windows DFS is used. The ANP Image Bank no longer has to worry about security or privacy either. Solvinity has placed the network segmentation into so-called security zones. Within these zones, different virtual LANs (VLANs) are created for the specific partitioning of individual clients. When multi-year business arrangements are entered into, like the one between ANP and Solvinity, it is impossible to predict what will happen in the future. The infrastructure and the service delivery of Solvinity is consequently designed to accommodate any unexpected fluctuations in demand for additional capacity, without running the risk of capital losses. Capacity can therefore be scaled up or down by ANP at any time, either on a straight-line basis or staggered in phases. Solvinity doesn t cut any corners when it comes to the uptime of its infrastructure. This not only means all the technology satisfies the principle of one is not enough, but also that the entire service is designed to ensure maximum availability of the information systems of the ANP Image Bank. 3
From server to service Thanks to Solvinity, the ANP Image Bank now has a genuine, unique, hybrid cloud solution that is both efficient and low-cost. It has taken its business to the next level: from server to service. It now has applications running in the cloud, and an MS-SQL is offered as a service. The modernised infrastructure now includes a web portal with two web servers, an image bank application server, MS SQL database servers, Linux and Windows file servers, and an FTP server. Flexibility and scalability are just as important for us Mark Westerhoff is very satisfied with the working relationship with Solvinity, and was impressed with the turnaround time for the project. The old environment of the ANP Image Bank has now been completely phased out. Solvinity not only provides us with a stable service, they have also exceeded our expectations in their role as broker between Amazon and ANP. They have delivered on their promise of lower prices, and we will get even lower prices if the contract is extended. Although, thanks to storage tiering, amongst other things, we already get very competitive prices as it is. The collaboration with our own software supplier, imedia, has also gone very smoothly. The initial design of the ANP Image Bank was developed in close collaboration with imedia and consultants from Oblivion. A clearly-defined assignment of tasks and responsibilities was drawn up between the various parties. We now have a 24/7 full-service provider, which means Solvinity is responsible for guaranteeing availability, the management, and the support services for the entire central environment, which includes the hardware, infrastructure, network, and the technical (application) management. ANP only has to take care of the functional application management. The services are offered based on a fixed fee per month. To make sure the performance of the environment does not degrade when usage or loads start to increase, Solvinity has a scalable solution that means additional capacity can be made available quickly on request. imedia is responsible for the functional operation, while Solvinity is responsible for the Amazon S3 service delivery, especially the billing and call registration. Westerhoff emphasises that cost-cutting was definitely not the only reason for the modernisation of its infrastructure. Flexibility and scalability are just as important for us. Our business is characterised by peaks and troughs in demand. Any time you get a major national or international event, like a royal coronation, you get an explosive demand for photographic material, while in the middle of the summer when everyone is on holiday the demand for photographs usually drops off considerably. 4
DBaaS at Solvinity Transaction processing with SQL Server 2014 Enterprise is up to 10 times faster. In addition, the AlwaysOn technology delivers higher availability and Failover functionality: SQL Clustering offers High Availability and Disaster Recovery functionality; Proven technology, developed as a service solution with Microsoft; Cost-efficient licensing and shared infrastructure; Access to knowledge and experience in implementation and management. About Solvinity Solvinity develops innovative customer solutions and provides a high level of security to companies with safe access to private, public and hybrid clouds. Solvinity specializes in cloud services for managed hosting, analytics, workplace and security. The company is an expert in hosting critical infrastructures. Being Secure and compliant by design is a leading principle, which is supported with certifications according to international and national standards like ISO27001, ISO14001, ISAE3402 type II, SOC2 and NEN7510. Its annual turnover amounted to 35 million euro s in 2014. There are 180 employees working in the Netherlands. For more information please visit www.solvinity.com, or follow Solvinity on Twitter and LinkedIn. Postall address Solvinity B.V. Postbus 58 1270 AB Huizen Visiting address Solvinity B.V. Energieweg 8 1271 ED Huizen T +31 (0)35 523 26 26 F +31 (0)35 523 26 27 www.solvinity.com info@solvinity.com 5