Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • IT Management
    • Storage

    IBM, NetApp Ease Storage Integration

    By
    Brian Fonseca
    -
    January 10, 2005
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Impeccable housekeeping and extraordinary customer service are the traditional marks of a four-star hotel. For many, internal IT operations receive that same level of attention.

      So when hotels get the urge to merge, establishing and executing technology integration and consolidation plans to maintain the mounting data volumes and connectivity become critical.

      Facing just such a situation was Interstate Hotels & Resorts Inc., which was established when three companies merged over a four-year period ending in 2003. At the heart of the consolidation was the need to integrate three data centers in Dallas, Pittsburgh and Washington.

      Rather than merely link the data centers, the nations largest independent hotel management company set out to create a central operation center for the data centers and their 120 servers in an effort to drastically reduce its IT operations and spending.

      Although the data centers featured some similarities—they all ran Microsoft Corp. software platforms, including Windows 2000 and Windows NT, with a bit of Novell Inc. products mixed in—the hardware installation was a different story. Each center used its own systems, resulting in a hodgepodge of Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Compaq and IBM systems and components.

      “In the hospitality industry, you spend your money very frugally, and so whoever has the cheapest price we turn to,” said Rajiv Castellino, vice president of hospitality technology at Interstate Hotels & Resorts, in Arlington, Va. “Basically, each of these [three companies] had their own data center, their own rules and their own equipment, and dealing with that was a problem.

      “Its so much easier to manage by getting everyone under the same umbrella, so we decided to consolidate all into that one corporate office here in Arlington,” Castellino said.

      Since the Washington data center belonging to Interstate Hotels & Resorts had standardized its IT framework onto IBM servers, laptops and desktops, the hotel management company asked IBM Global Services to help it acquire the right modular storage system.

      IGS got the responsibility to facilitate the transaction, and after examining the playing field, Interstate Hotels & Resorts chose storage offerings from IBM partner Network Appliance Inc. for the project.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifClick here to read about a company using Network Appliances gFiler to open data stores.

      “We defined what our business functionality needed, what was important and what we would be able to achieve without losing any data along the way. That is how we determined the platform. Then it was a matter of migrating everything here and sitting it on one big box; that is the NetApp box,” said Castellino.

      Next Page: Scale increases the challenge.

      Scale increases the challenge

      Sounds simple enough, but considering the extent of the companys operations, its anything but. Interstate Hotels & Resorts oversees the marketing, sales, accounting, finances and payrolls of 350 hotels and resorts across the United States, as well as areas in Canada, Portugal, and Russia. The company manages the internal operations of properties owned by third-party flagship hotel brands, such as Marriott, Hilton, Starwood, Sheraton Four Points, Weston, Intercontinental, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, to name just a few. The “flag” employees actually work for Interstate Hotels & Resorts, stretching its employee base to 33,000.

      “Because we run all these properties, we interface with [the] flags to maintain daily information for accounting and payroll systems. They are all individual but consolidated onto one single Microsoft platform. So they are different systems, but the storage resides over here,” said Castellino.

      A major priority for Interstate Hotels & Resorts was wresting back control of e-mail storage operations. Thats where NetApp, of Sunnyvale, Calif., came in. It enabled the hotel management company to run NetApp SnapManager for Exchange and Single Mailbox Recovery.

      The data management offering bolsters storage management while simplifying configuration, backup and restore functionality for Exchange platforms. SnapManager features rapid restores, near-instantaneous hot backups and policy-based data retention management.

      Interstate Hotels & Resorts also chose to deploy NetApps FAS940 midrange product to run Exchange storage, the FAS250 as its Web platform and the entry-level FAS270 appliance.

      Castellino said the FAS270 is not yet in production. The one-shelf-of-disk-storage box is being used to store ERP (enterprise resource planning) information from the Dallas data center and is the final component of the single data center migration.

      Castellino said the consolidations storage efforts taught him a few lessons about the complexity of scattered data across an enterprise.

      “Its amazing how much you dont know that resides in all these disparate data sites and data centers. Just the fact of having it all together and getting the access was huge for us. Slowly but surely, that became the most important part, and then backing it up,” Castellino said.

      Rod Mathews, NetApps senior director, said numerous customers biggest challenge when facing consolidation is performing a minute inventory of all applications and employing the correct configurations under the covers.

      “You want to see someone go home on a Friday and come to work on a Monday and dont know that anything has changed,” said Mathews. “Its changing the foundation of the house while youre still living in the house. In order to do that, you need a plan on how youre going to execute that, and thats where IBM Global Services comes in.”

      Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis on enterprise and small business storage hardware and software.

      Brian Fonseca
      Brian Fonseca is a senior writer at eWEEK who covers database, data management and storage management software, as well as storage hardware. He works out of eWEEK's Woburn, Mass., office. Prior to joining eWEEK, Brian spent four years at InfoWorld as the publication's security reporter. He also covered services, and systems management. Before becoming an IT journalist, Brian worked as a beat reporter for The Herald News in Fall River, Mass., and cut his teeth in the news business as a sports and news producer for Channel 12-WPRI/Fox 64-WNAC in Providence, RI. Brian holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×