Platform supporting Web-centric travel services seeks failover cluster solution with SIOS Protection Suite for Linux

ezRez® needed a failover cluster solution to protect their databases. San Francisco-based Software, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of online travel and loyalty solutions, enables its clients to deliver a variety of travel products, including airline, car and hotel reservations, as well as vacation activities and travel insurance. Whether a business wants to provide a standalone offering or products packaged with other services, the ezRez platform allows a company to launch online travel services with the look and feel of a customized implementation.

The Challenge

ezRez has unique data protection requirements for its online travel services solution. The company operates separate databases for each client. It has developed its own platform based on the PostgreSQL open source database management system to support its services. However, PostgreSQL does not contain failover-clustering capabilities. If ezRez’s systems were to go down, the company and its clients would lose revenue, productivity and brand equity. ezRez needed an affordable failover cluster solution solution that could assure their systems remained available. They conducted a thorough search for a solution that would easily integrate with the company’s PostgreSQL-based platform. Soon after, ezRez determined that SIOS Technology and its SIOS Protection Suite for Linux was the best choice.

Maintain Online Stability And Eliminate Downtime

As a company whose platform processes thousands of transactions each day, ezRez needed a failover solution to monitor the databases. It has to provide a strong level of protection in case of a failure. In addition to requiring a failover cluster solution that would accommodate its PostgreSQL-based platform, ezRez wanted a solution that would eliminate downtime. When a system fails, it causes a lot of inconvenience for the enduser. In an online environment these failures are magnified. Experiencing downtime can be detrimental to a company’s revenues, reputation and success. This is especially so for a company such as ezRez whose core business depends on maintaining online stability. “Our clients expect a high percentage of uptime,” said Bruttig.

SIOS Failover Cluster Solution

SIOS Protection Suite for Linux ensures the continuous availability of ezRez’s data by creating a fault resilient environment. In addition, SIOS Protection Suite for Linux monitors each database instance to ensure that any fault is automatically detected and corrected while also maintaining uninterrupted access to the data. The solution is the only commercial product that works seamlessly with ezRez’s PostgreSQL database infrastructure. SIOS has been supporting the PostgreSQL open source database management platform for several years. The software provide solutions that allow businesses to add data protection functionality into PostgreSQL-supported database management systems. In addition to SIOS Data Protection Suite for Linux, SIOS Data Replication for Linux supports PostgreSQL 7 and 8 out of the box, which was a key prerequisite for ezRez. ezRez currently runs on Dell servers to manage its 8 node clustering environment and operates EMC PowerPath – a combination that often proves to be troublesome when searching for a HA failover solution. SIOS Protection Suite for Linux works in conjunction with EMC PowerPath. It does not require a proprietary file system. The solution’s compatibility with shared storage configurations, such as EMC PowerPath, as well as other types of storage configurations, made the SIOS Protection Suite for Linux the clear choice for ezRez.

Benefits

“It’s been 2.5 years since we deployed SIOS Protection Suite for Linux into our architecture,” said Bruttig. “During this time our uptime has been over 99.95 percent.” SIOS Protection Suite for Linux’s price point and its ease of deployment was an additional key benefit in ezRez’s decision to select the data protection solution. “The solution caught a crucial issue that had potential to result in a global outage. SIOS Protection Suite for Linux failed it over successfully, which resulted in no downtime to our customers,” said Bruttig. “If SIOS Protection Suite for Linux was not in place it would be extremely expensive to maintain our 99.95% uptime. The solution performs at the highest degree, delivering exactly what it promises to do.”

To find out more about SIOS products, go here
To read about how SIOS’ failover cluster solution helped ezRez®, go here