iSCSI
SAN Solution from Network Appliance at Largest Contact
Retailer
1-800 CONTACTS Sees
Benefits of Network Appliance™ iSCSI SAN Solution
NetApp® iSCSI SAN Improves
Performance While Reducing IT Cost and Administration
Sunnyvale, Calif. -
October 20, 2003 --
Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP), a leading provider
of enterprise network storage solutions, today announced
that 1-800 CONTACTS, the world's largest contact lens
store, has deployed a NetApp iSCSI SAN solution to
simplify its network storage, lower its storage TCO, and
implement a disaster recovery and business continuance
solution. 1-800 CONTACTS stocks more than 20 million
contact lenses and sells as many contact lenses in a
single day (over 150,000), as 2,500 retail optical shops
combined. Price, convenience, and rapid delivery are the
company's key competitive advantages, and its continued
ability to rapidly record, verify, and fulfill customer
orders requires a high availability, high-performance IT
infrastructure.
By leveraging its existing Gigabit Ethernet network and
integrating a NetApp iSCSI SAN storage solution, 1-800
CONTACTS was able to more efficiently store and manage the
large amounts of data generated from processing as many as
10,000 orders a day by more than 300 call-center agents
and 90 shipping agents using Microsoft® SQL Server based
applications to meet the company's high standards for
response time.
"The NetApp iSCSI SAN leverages familiar Ethernet
technology to provide a cost-effective storage solution
with the performance, scalability, and business
continuance capabilities we need to provide a convenient
and dependable service for our customers," said Todd
Witzel, chief information officer, 1-800 CONTACTS.
"The reliability of NetApp storage allows us to focus
on other aspects of our business and IT infrastructure
that require more attention."
The company rapidly deployed a NetApp fabric-attached
storage system and NetApp NearStore® system, and
implemented an iSCSI SAN as soon as it became available,
using an iSCSI hardware initiator from Intel. The
combination of Ethernet technology and easy-to-manage
NetApp storage systems resulted in a rapid iSCSI SAN
deployment. 1-800 CONTACTS was running production data on
the NetApp iSCSI SAN less than an hour after switching
over to the new protocol and installing Intel® PRO/1000 T
IP storage adapter cards.
Network Appliance offers highly available, scalable, and
cost-effective storage consolidation solutions that
incorporate the NetApp enterprise storage platform and the
feature-rich functionality of data and resource management
software to deliver storage with simplified backup and
reduced recovery time, as well as the ability to add
storage without downtime.
|
