4-page Case Study - Posted 6/27/2007
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Classified Advertiser Achieves 100 Per Cent Uptime with Database Management Solution
Developed by the United Kingdom’s largest regional press groups, the fish4 Web site is home to classified advertisements for cars, homes, and jobs. The Web site deals with large amounts of data every day. It began experiencing problems with its database management systems after it migrated to a new Sybase platform in mid 2005. To combat repeated downtime issues, fish4 searched for a more reliable and flexible platform to support its business goals. The company decided to build on the Microsoft® application platform. It chose Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 over Oracle and open source databases because it was cost effective and easy to deploy. Fish4 implemented the solution in-house, and, since going live in November 2006, uptime has been 100 per cent, supporting the company’s busiest month ever in January 2007.
Situation
Fish4 was developed by several regional newspaper groups—Newsquest Media, Trinity Mirror, and Guardian Media—as an online focal point for classified ads. The groups represent 650 daily and weekly newspapers, accounting for around 60 per cent of the United Kingdom’s regional press.
Through the fish4jobs, fish4homes, and fish4cars Web sites, users can access a range of tools designed to help them find employment, purchase property, or buy a used or new car. In addition to large databases of available jobs, homes, and cars, the sites offer information on associated services such as mortgages and insurance.
Users of the fish4 Web sites expect to access a large, searchable database to provide them with fast results for their queries. A recent audit for the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS) revealed that 2.5 million unique visitors accessed the fish4jobs Web site in October 2006 to view more than 40,000 jobs. As a result, fish4 relies heavily on its database management systems.
In late 2005, the company began experiencing problems with its existing Sybase database management system, and, after repeated instances of downtime, fish4 decided to revaluate its database systems.
Richard Yeo, Chief Technology Officer at fish4, says: “Our uptime was below the level expected by the business. We went down repeatedly during the week, particularly in the heavy period between January and March.” In addition, employees shied away from developing on the platform. Yeo says: “We had productivity problems with Sybase because none of the developers wanted to learn Sybase or develop against it.”
In March 2006, dissatisfied with the level of support in resolving its downtime issue, fish4 began looking at alternative solutions. The company considered Oracle and open source databases, but found the shared heritage in source code between its existing technology and Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 offered a fast, straightforward migration.
Fish4 was also impressed by how cost-effective SQL Server 2005 was. In the company’s previous experience, many of the technologies it wanted to use were regarded as additional cost options, which wasn’t the case with SQL Server.
“With our previous solution, if we wanted to use XML or managed code in the database, or we were looking at replication or clustering, it involved additional cost,” says Yeo. “With SQL Server 2005, not only was the database engine more cost effective, but all of these technologies were available out of the box.” The team recognised that, on the Microsoft application platform, it would be easy to build connected systems to bring people, processes, and information together.
Solution
In March 2006, the fish4 team decided to advance the business using the Microsoft Application Platform—moving its production database and data warehouse to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise 64-Bit Edition running on Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 64-Bit Edition. At the same time as this migration, the company was also updating its business intelligence software and moving away from a managed hosting company.
Because the migration to SQL Server 2005 was relatively simple, fish4 employees could concentrate on the company’s other projects. The first phase of the SQL Server project—migrating the technology in a development environment—took one developer working part time around four to six weeks.
“The migration was the easiest part,” says Yeo. “But getting it to coincide and keep all the other application updates relevant to SQL Server was a little bit harder. Overall, it was quite painless.”
The entire operation was conducted in-house by fish4 employees. In November 2006, its production database and data warehouse were ready to be moved to its new data centre. The data warehouse—which was growing at a rate of 150 gigabytes (GBs) a year—and the 40 to 50 GB production database were migrated at the same time over the Internet without a problem.
Benefits
Since deploying SQL Server 2005, fish4 has eliminated the problems it experienced in early 2006. Deploying a reliable, enterprise-wide data platform, which delivers 100 per cent uptime, not only gives the business confidence, but allows its employees to focus on development rather than troubleshooting. With the solution in place, fish4 achieved its busiest month ever in January 2007, offering faster search speeds than all its competitors.
Web Site Uptime Reaches 100 Per Cent
Since SQL Server went live at the start of November 2006, fish4 has experienced 100 per cent uptime with its business critical systems. Prior to this, downtime affected the productivity and morale of employees, who often had to work through weekends to resolve issues. Yeo says: “Since going live with SQL Server—during which time we had our busiest month ever—we’ve not had any downtime at all.”
Team Supports Solution Development
Before implementing SQL Server 2005, fish4 was disappointed by the level of support it received for its database management systems, despite having a support contract in place. When the company experienced a problem with SQL Server, it posted its query in a newsgroup on the MSDN® Web site and, within hours, someone in the SQL Server development team picked up the query. Comparing the two experiences, Yeo says: “For me, it was a philosophy difference. Microsoft wasn’t in it to make money out of support—it wanted to make a better product. If customers had a problem, it didn’t matter whether they had a support contract or not—someone was there and interested in improving the product.”
Employees Complete Migration Quickly
“Thinking about migrating database technology is something that sends shivers down my spine—it’s not the nicest project in the world,” says Yeo. “But migrating from Sybase to SQL Server is a walk in the park.”
The shared heritage of SQL Server 2005 source code with fish4 existing solutions made the implementation straightforward, allowing employees to focus their expertise on coordinating the data centre move and updating the company’s business intelligence software.
Developer Productivity Increased
Fish4 developers found SQL Server user-friendly and simple to use. “SQL Server is the easiest database technology to develop against,” says Yeo. “It’s a pleasure for developers to work with.” Since moving to the Microsoft application platform, productivity in the development team has increased. In December 2006, developers rewrote the fish4jobs CV service—originally developed in Norwegian—with additional functionality on top of SQL Server 2005. Now, job-seekers’ CVs are matched against employment vacancies, giving recruiters the 10 best-matched CVs within the same number of minutes.
Faster Search Performance than Competitors
The company’s position at the head of the United Kingdom online recruitment market is confirmed by the 2006 NORAS report, which shows a 56 per cent increase in unique users visiting the site from the previous year. The company has achieved this with 100 per cent uptime and its fastest-ever search capability.
“January 2007 was our busiest month ever, and SQL Server 2005 has just flown through it,” says Yeo. “The search performance is now the fastest we’ve ever had, and—from the analysis we’ve done—we believe we’re faster than all our competitors.”
Administrators Focus on High-Value Tasks
Database administrators spend less time on routine database maintenance on the new application platform. This means they have more time to focus on high-value tasks such as database architecture and developing new features and functionality.
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
For more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:
www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
For more information about Microsoft Exchange Server, go to:
www.microsoft.com/exchange
All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published June 2007
