Majenta Citywire Case Study

For fast-moving financial publishers Citywire, up-to-the-minute financial information held in its systems is critical to business success and has to be immediately accessible by the firm’s journalists and advisers anytime, anywhere on any device. Spiralling data volumes meant that a fresh strategic approach to data storage was required. Head of IT Operations James Blake wanted a consolidated solution which would support Citywire operations seamlessly both now and into the future, without the need for frequent updates and further investment. Assured data backup and replication of data to the DR site were other key issues.

To provide optimum scalability, reliability and performance, Citywire chose a NetApp solution with VMware, supplied and installed in record time by NetApp’s Platinum Partner Majenta Solutions. Majenta, founded in 1995 in the UK, is one of the most highly respected infrastructure solutions providers in Europe. As a NetApp Platinum Authorised Reseller they have proven experience in the specification and deployment of NetApp storage solutions. Citywire already relied on NetApp technology for efficient management of their SQL database and had complete confidence in the technical expertise and realistic approach of Majenta Solutions.

Citywire

Citywire is an independent financial publishing and data group providing a unique combination of journalistic experience, regulated financial advice and proprietary data. The organisation has a team of over 80 staff, producing news, investment ideas and recommendations on shares and funds every weekday. Citywire aims to help customers make good decisions about where to invest money to achieve their aims, with a mix of information, practical advice, analysis, facts and figures, tips and news. The business is completely independent of any financial organisation and therefore can be completely objective.

Citywire was founded in 1999 by its Chairman Lawrence Lever, formerly Financial Editor of the Mail on Sunday and Assistant City Editor of the Times. As well as offering a range of investment tools and websites providing the latest news for specific customer groups, Citywire publishes magazines for advisers and fund selectors ranging from the weekly New Model Adviser® and monthly Citywire Funds Insider to Citywire Fund Selector for European fund selectors.

The challenge

Citywire’s systems were holding increasingly large volumes of business information. For James Blake, Head of IT Operations, this build-up of data was causing problems with storage capacity and manageability,

“Data volumes were just vastly growing and threatening to go out of control,” explained James. “We needed to find a long-term solution rather than buying ‘sticky plaster’ solutions every six months.”

A consolidated approach to data storage would offer increased capacity and efficiency, easier management and reduced costs. However it was vital that the new data storage and management solution at Citywire would also have the reliability, 24 x 7 availability, speed and performance demanded by the firm’s journalists, advisers and consultants, always working against deadlines in fast-changing financial markets.

“Data volumes at Citywire were growing fast and it was a challenge for the IT team to manage dispersed data pools,” commented Manish Amlani of Majenta Solutions. “It made sense for them to centralise and consolidate their storage. Citywire were also committed to improving the quality of their data backup, reducing the backup window, and improving their disaster recovery strategy with data replication to their DR site.”

With an important development of the Citywire website being planned, the timing for a change was critical. Also the IT team did not have the luxury of a long period for development and testing – the new system had to go into a production environment immediately on installation.

“There were tight timescales to get the development done and we don’t have spare teams for quality assurance and testing,” explained James Blake.

The solution

James Blake at Citywire stated: “The Majenta team came in to talk to us with a very good team. It’s always a lot of money to spend when you are buying filers, but Majenta recommended a technical solution that completely met all our IT needs.”

The solution designed by Majenta included another NetApp FAS270 system, including CIFS software for both filers, for additional flexibility of management. The fabric-attached NetApp FAS270 series combines fast data access with low maintenance requirements. The FAS270 has a compact design but can hold up to 16 terabytes of applications and data, integrating data storage and processing into a single unit. Data access would be speeded up and backup/restore operations simplified. There were also potential cost savings through reduced tape management and simpler system management.

“NetApp technology works well for Citywire as it can grow with their business requirements,” explained Manish Amlani of Majenta Solutions, “The software interface enables them to unlock functionality as they need it.”

The solution designed by Majenta included NetApp SnapMirror technology for assured data backup and replication.

“Citywire adopted our recommendation for offsite data storage,” stated Manish Amlani. “SnapMirror simplifies backup of Exchange and SQL and provides not only recovery point objectives but also recovery time objectives. It is a clever tool and adds value to the solution.”

The solution also included VMware for virtualisation of Citywire data storage systems.

“Virtualisation makes data storage more efficient and easier to manage,” commented Manish Amlani. “Once data is centralised, you can reduce backup windows and achieve efficient replication for Disaster Recovery.”

“A SAN was the right approach for us and we bought additional storage capacity as part of the virtualisation route with VMware,” added James Blake. “Virtualisation is the way the industry is going and it’s an ideal time for us to adopt it.”

Implementing the solution

The new solution, including the move to virtualisation, was rapidly implemented by Majenta in association with NetApp UK distributors DNS Arrow to meet Citywire deadlines and went straight into a production environment.

All elements of the new system were integrated seamlessly into the Citywire infrastructure, supporting data storage, backup and replication immediately. Citywire has virtual servers at its co-location DR site and tested DR plans with the new system.

“With our time and manpower being extremely limited at that period, we had to go live immediately,” explained James Blake. “The web server and application server had to work from implementation and this was achieved without any interruption.”

Benefits

Server virtualisation offers a major opportunity to transform IT systems for the future, with not only easier management and scalability but cost-savings of up to 50% on staff time, space and power.

“This is a great solution for us – powerful stuff and worth every penny,” commented James Blake. “If the system did go wrong, with the added feature of virtualisation in our environment, we know we can build another one in half an hour!”

“The overall manageability is better, we now feel we have complete control and the data recovery times have improved dramatically. Gone are the days when you need to walk into a server room and put disks in drives. DR too is easier than it used to be.”

The consolidated system is cost-effective, scaleable and easier to manage while meeting the needs of the firm’s journalists and advisers for rapid access 24 x 7.

“There is a major change in how we work and how we look at our systems – the whole package takes minimal time and yet we have full control,” concluded James Blake.

About Majenta Solutions Ltd

Majenta Solutions is a Platinum NetApp Reseller. With 3 European office locations, Majenta provides enterprise storage solutions to a diverse customer base, spanning many industry sectors. Their aim is to deliver unmatched simplicity to the complex world of data management. We do this with data centre-proven solutions for storing, managing, protecting, and retaining corporate data which is all delivered by our exceptional and fully trained professional sales and services team.

Majenta pride themselves in offering:

• Specialisation in Data Storage, UNIX Server and Product Development solutions
• Unbiased advice across a wide range of Product Development tools
• Ownership to closure of customer issue (sales or support)
• Training and support for all of the products they represent

Summary

Challenge – to provide consolidated, easily-managed and scalable data storage, backup and replication for Citywire

Solution – NetApp FAS 270 system with SnapMirror and VMware supplied by Majenta Solutions

Results – Citywire now has a fast, efficient and reliable data storage system that can seamlessly keep pace with its business needs now and into the future.