ServiceU Corporation

Event Management Firm Provides Software as a Service using SQL Server 2008

With customers in all 50 states and 15 countries, ServiceU is a leader in the field of supporting online and on-demand event management. Its software services, created and deployed using the Microsoft® Application Platform, are used by churches, schools, universities, theaters, and businesses to manage concerts, conferences, and other events. As a Payment Card Industry Level 1 Service Provider, the company is interested in security and performance, which is why it is upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server® 2008. ServiceU is using a number of new SQL Server 2008 features including enhanced auditing, and Policy-based Management to enforce configuration policies. The company is also using the new Performance Data Collection and Plan Freezing features to enhance performance, and the Data Compression and Backup Compression features to reduce the cost of disk-based storage.

Situation

ServiceU is a leader in providing Web-based online scheduling, event management, ticketing, and related Web-based services to a wide range of organizations. The company’s applications, which are offered using the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model, are used by churches, schools, universities, theaters, businesses, and other organizations to manage meetings, concerts, conferences, and other events.

The company takes pride in the variety of ways in which its customers have put its SaaS applications to work, including:

• Arenas, community centers, churches and other organizations that use ServiceU for reserved-seat ticketing for all of their events.
• Organizations that integrate ServiceU event management solutions with their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems so that proper HVAC settings are initiated prior to a space being used for an event, and are automatically turned down after the event.
• Television stations that use ServiceU’s calendaring applications to host self-service electronic community calendars.
• Schools that use ServiceU solutions for class registration.
• Churches that use ServiceU for online giving.
• Utility companies that use ServiceU for Electronic Bill Payment

ServiceU, based in Memphis, Tennessee, has customers in all 50 states and 15 countries. The company’s SaaS applications have been used by its customers to coordinate scheduling for more than 15 million events, serving clients ranging from small nonprofit organizations to Fortune 500 companies.

In my view, SQL Server 2008 is a big winner for us in all three of these areas. The Microsoft Application Platform is truly a key strategic advantage for ServiceU. Tim Whitehorn Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ServiceU

ServiceU provides its customers with flexibility, including the ability to choose the services they need via a central control panel, creating their own custom solutions, and paying for only the services used. The control panel allows organizers to customize the end-user experience by setting background colors, fonts, and even terminology; for example using ‘Groups’ instead of ‘Departments.’ This enables an organization’s customers to enjoy a seamless experience, eliminating confusion and customer service issues.

By outsourcing critical event management processes to ServiceU, customers avoid the risks of data security and eliminate the complexities of in-house software.

Since moving in 1998 to a service provider model, ServiceU has depended upon Microsoft® SQL Server® database software and other elements of the Microsoft Application Platform. Building its solution upon the Microsoft Application Platform has helped ServiceU to provide a seamless user experience and high availability of services.

Due to high transaction volumes, rapid growth, and rigid security requirements, ServiceU needed a compression solution to reduce storage needs, and also sought better database auditing tools and an easier method of collecting performance data to help it ensure an optimal user experience.

Solution

ServiceU has begun updating its infrastructure to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise. Its developers have upgraded to Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008, and the company is planning an early upgrade to the Windows Server® 2008 Enterprise operating system.

The company uses a multi-tier architecture that includes:

• Presentation Tier. Customers access ServiceU services using a browser, avoiding the need for client-side applications. The presentation tier uses Window Server 2003 Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Web server technology. The Presentation tier is hosted as a Web farm using Windows Server 2003 Network Load Balancing to dynamically distribute traffic across Dell PowerEdge 2850 servers, each with two processors and four gigabytes (GB) of RAM.
• Remote Tier. Following Microsoft’s Software + Services (S+S) architecture, ServiceU provides S+S applications that run locally on a customer’s network and maintain a local subset of the customer’s data. This tier enables HVAC control and other services, as well as continual data access for occasionally connected systems.
• Service-Oriented Architecture. ServiceU offers customers the ability to use its solution to create their own applications, using ServiceU for backend processing.
• Application Layer. The application layer includes a number of custom business objects ServiceU developers created to apply rules for ticketing, scheduling resources, checking for conflicts, handling payments, and other key functions. The application layer is co-hosted on the same servers as the presentation tier. Application development is currently performed using Visual Studio 2008.
• Database Tier. ServiceU utilizes a multi-tenant architecture and stores nearly a terabyte of data, with more than 380 million rows in the largest table. This is done in a relational database hosted on a single named instance of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, which is being upgraded to SQL Server 2008 Enterprise. The database tier is hosted on a three-node active/passive cluster using Dell PowerEdge 2850 and 2970 64-bit servers, each with 32 GB of RAM and running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition for 64-Bit Systems.
• Mirrored Database. To provide disaster recovery, ServiceU is using the Database Mirroring feature introduced with SQL Server 2005 to provide an asynchronous mirrored copy of its data to a cluster at the company’s disaster recovery data center in Atlanta, Georgia. Database mirroring transfers transaction log records directly from one server to another and can quickly fail over to the standby system, with no loss of committed data.

PCI Compliance
ServiceU has created a solid solution using the Microsoft Application Platform, and has demonstrated secure data protection practices, obtaining compliance as a Level 1 Payment Card Industry (PCI) Service Provider.

The PCI Data Security Standard, established by an industry coalition led by Visa and MasterCard, mandates rigorous requirements for protecting cardholder information and requires compliance for any organization that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data. ServiceU, as a Level 1 Service Provider is required to have compliance validated regularly by a PCI Qualified Security Assessor and an Approved Scanning Vendor.

Moving to SQL Server 2008
The company has been well served by SQL Server 2005, but began upgrading its database infrastructure because it is eager to take advantage of new features of SQL Server 2008, including:

• Backup Compression. With SQL Server 2008 backup compression, the compression is performed in memory before the data is transferred to disk, enabling backups and restores to run faster since fewer disk I/O operations are required. Backup compression reduces the storage required to keep backups online, reducing the overall cost of keeping disk-based backups.
• Data Compression. In addition to backup compression, SQL Server 2008 allows data files to be compressed at the partition or page level. As with backup compression, this reduces disk storage requirements and allows more data to be retrieved from disk in the same amount of time.
• Enhanced Auditing. SQL Server 2008 provides comprehensive data auditing to help organizations monitor all events at the server and database levels, and scale-out auditing across the enterprise.
• Policy-based Management. New for SQL Server 2008, Policy-based Management helps organizations set and enforce compliance with policies for system configuration, SQL Server databases, and other SQL Server objects. Administered from the SQL Server Management Studio, Policy-based Management can be used to set and enforce policy for internal and external database developers and administrators.
• Performance Data Collection. SQL Server 2008 provides Performance Studio, an integrated framework that organizations can use to collect, analyze, troubleshoot, and store SQL Server diagnostics information.
• Plan Freezing. SQL Server 2008 enables greater query performance stability and predictability by providing new functionality to lock down query plans, enabling organizations to promote stable query plans across hardware server replacements, server upgrades, and production deployments.
• Support for spatial data types. Beyond relational data—SQL Server 2008 enables developers to consume and manage any type of data from traditional data types to advanced new spatial data. Developers can build next-generation database applications that feature new location awareness support and that enable document management capabilities.

ServiceU is especially eager to take advantage of the advances in SQL Server 2008, because it can use the new features and functionalities to directly enhance the experience of its customers.

“Unlike enterprises in which software supports their business, hosted software is our business,” says Tim Whitehorn, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ServiceU. “As the CEO, I have three key criteria for valuing new technologies: 1) improving system reliability and security, 2) reducing the cost of maintaining software, and 3) accelerating the timeframe for deploying new features and enhancements. In my view, SQL Server 2008 is a big winner for us in all three of these areas. The Microsoft Application Platform is truly a key strategic advantage for ServiceU.”

Benefits

ServiceU is making good use of the new features of SQL Server 2008 to enhance the operations and product offerings of its services built upon the Microsoft Application Platform. Backup compression and data compression reduce the cost of storage, and database auditing is easier with SQL Server 2008. Upgrading its databases will also provide easier performance tuning, protected query performance, and support for geospatial data types.

The Plan Freezing feature in SQL Server 2008 provides consistency that every database administrator should appreciate. David P. Smith Chief Technology Officer, ServiceU

Storage Savings with Backup Compression and Data Compression
One of the first databases ServiceU deployed on SQL Server 2008 was a business-critical database for logging data the company is required to store as part of its PCI compliance. With a data store of more than 300 GB, the company knew that keeping backups and transaction log backups for even a minimal period of time would soon require more than a terabyte of storage.

Using the backup compression built into SQL Server 2008, ServiceU reports seeing a greater than 6-to-1 compression ratio, providing a significant reduction in its need for backup storage. “We saw an 85 percent reduction in file size using SQL Server 2008 Backup Compression,” says Colin Neller, Senior Software Engineer at ServiceU and part of the company’s SQL Server 2008 implementation team. “A backup file that was previously over 300 GB is now only 40 GB, and the job runs in about half the time.”

“There’s a popular saying that ‘storage is cheap,’” says David P. Smith, Chief Technology Officer at ServiceU. “But that isn’t necessarily true. Storage isn’t cheap when you are using an enterprise-level SAN [storage area network] device in a fully-redundant configuration.”

Smith anticipates even more savings by compressing a portion of the data files in addition to the backups. “We’re looking beyond backup compression to using data compression in our production environment,” Smith says. “With SQL Server 2008 we can partition our working databases and use data compression on just selected partitions. This allows us to compress older data, while not incurring any overhead from compressing newer, frequently-used data. Based on our tests, we estimate we will see a 35 percent reduction in disk storage needs by compressing older data. We calculate that we are saving [U.S.]$25,000 to $50,000 the first year alone in what would have been additional storage costs by using the compression features in SQL Server 2008.”

Easier Auditing
Auditing is increasingly important across most organizations, but is especially vital for ServiceU as a Level 1 PCI Service Provider. In addition to its own internal audits, ServiceU must perform regular onsite PCI audits.

“Database auditing is much easier with SQL Server 2008. Auditing is important to our operations, so we really appreciate the ease of use,” says Smith. “SQL Server 2005 had all of the core information we needed for our audits, but required detailed queries to extract it. The enhanced auditing features of SQL Server 2008 represent a tremendous improvement.”

ServiceU has found that creating and managing audit logs is easier with SQL Server 2008. Using the audit UI, a database administrator can set up and manage the logs, including storing them on separate servers—work that once required daily file copies by a network administrator.

“With the SQL Server 2008 auditing UI we can quickly automate tasks that once required ongoing work by an administrator, or in some cases, the time of a very experienced developer,” Smith says. “The auditing enhancements are saving us time all across the board, which means these enhancements are also saving the employee costs of high-price personnel.”

Performance Tuning
As a Software as a Solution provider, ServiceU is constantly working to ensure that its customers have an optimal user experience, which includes providing fast responses to queries and transactions. The company sees great value in the Performance Data Collection feature of SQL Server 2008.

“We have to provide excellent service at all times,” says Smith. “Before SQL Server 2008 it could be difficult to identify the source of a performance problem. We might be wondering, for example, what caused CPU utilization to spike. With Performance Data Collection we can very quickly drill down into the incident and then get the right person immediately involved to fix the problem.”

ServiceU values the faster speed with which it can identify performance problems.

“From the time we are alerted that we have a problem, we can identify and address the cause of it about 70 percent to 80 percent faster now that we have Performance Data Collection,” says Smith. “This provides tremendous time savings, and time is critical in addressing performance issues and helping us maintain our system performance. Yet even more important are the ways in which Performance Data Collection will help us completely avoid performance problems by giving us the information we need to work proactively.”

Protected Query Performance with Plan Freezing
ServiceU likes the ability to lock down query plans using the Plan Freezing feature of SQL Server 2008. “Our queries are run against our OLTP [online transaction processing] databases so it is important that we not allow a poorly designed query plan to slow down our system,” says Smith. “We need our queries to be as efficient as possible, and Plan Freezing enables us to guard against inefficient query plan caching.”

LINQ really takes data querying to the next level. ... We think this feature offers a huge boost in developer productivity and code maintainability. Colin Neller Senior Software Engineer, ServiceU

Smith anticipates that the Plan Freezing feature will be popular with many organizations.

“Database administrators will be familiar with a scenario in which an abnormal query causes a bad query plan to be cached,” says Smith. “The Plan Freezing feature in SQL Server 2008 provides consistency that every database administrator should appreciate.”

Support for Spatial Data
ServiceU plans to introduce entirely new services to its customers by taking advantage of SQL Server 2008 support for spatial data types. With many of the company’s customers using its solutions for event planning, ServiceU sees opportunities in providing a new generation of value-add services based upon event locations.

The company has long been interested in offering its customers the ability to provide their users with additional information and services based upon their geographic location, but had been frustrated by the time delays encountered in running complex algorithms to match location- relevant services.

“The ability to store geographic data as part of the relational database with SQL Server 2008 gives us the indexing capability we needed to instantly match service offerings to a user’s location,” says Smith. “Spatial indexing will enable us to create a new generation of services.”

Benefiting from Visual Studio 2008
ServiceU values Visual Studio 2008 for a number of reasons, including:

• Windows Workflow Foundation. The Windows Workflow Foundation in Visual Studio 2008 provides the programming model, engine, and tools for quickly building workflow-enabled applications on Windows. Smith notes, “We already provide customers with workflow-enabled applications, so we like the idea of this type of functionality being integrated into Visual Studio 2008.”
• Multi-targeting. Visual Studio 2008 enables developers to target multiple versions of the .NET Framework, Microsoft's managed code programming model for building applications on Windows clients, servers, and mobile or embedded devices. “Our developers appreciate multi-targeting because it makes it easier to work on existing applications and to retool them to take advantage of new functionality supported in the .NET Framework 3.5,” says Smith. “We’re no longer limited to working with a single version of the .NET Framework from within the Visual Studio development environment.”
• Enhanced Silverlight Support. Visual Studio 2008 includes new tools and support to help developers create solutions integrated with Silverlight™, Microsoft’s new cross-browser, cross-platform technology for delivering rich media experiences and interactive applications for the Web. “We see huge opportunities for creating a new generation of user experiences with Silverlight,” says Smith. “Having Silverlight integrated with Visual Studio 2008 will make it easier for us to extend to our customers the advantage of the Silverlight user experience.”
• Language Integrated Query (LINQ). New for Visual Studio 2008, LINQ adds querying capabilities for SQL Server, XML, and objects to Microsoft Visual Basic® and Microsoft Visual C#®. “LINQ really takes data querying to the next level,” says Neller. “Since LINQ is data agnostic as to the source or type of data being queried, developers can use the same syntax to order, filter, and manipulate data from a host of different sources. We think this feature offers a huge boost in developer productivity and code maintainability.”
• Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET 2.0. Working from Visual Studio 2008, developers can use Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET 2.0 to synchronize data from disparate sources over multi-tier and service-based architectures. ServiceU likes this feature because it is interested in deploying more solutions that run on mobile and remote devices. “Whenever you have server-based, data-driven applications coordinating data with mobile devices, synchronization is essential,” says Smith. “Synchronization Services will be a great help as we develop new occasionally-connected solutions to offer to our customers.”

Looking Ahead to Windows Server 2008
ServiceU plans early deployment of Windows Server 2008 to take advantage of a number of new features, including:

• Internet Information Services 7.0. Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) provides a security-enhanced, easy-to-manage platform for developing and reliably hosting Web applications and services. "The modular architecture of IIS7 and its integration with the newest version of the Microsoft .NET Framework contribute to increased Web server performance,” says James Hanauer, Senior Software Engineer at ServiceU. “These same characteristics provide a customizable platform where specialized server components such as authentication and logging can be extended or replaced.”
• Hyper-V. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is the hypervisor-based virtualization feature included as a role of Windows Server 2008, containing everything needed to support machine virtualization. “The Hyper-V improvements for virtualization will be extremely helpful in our development environment,” says Smith. “With the scalability improvements found in Hyper-V, though, we are now looking at ways to deploy it in our production and disaster recovery environments as well.”
• Microsoft Identify and Access. Microsoft's Identity and Access (IAD) solutions are a set of platform technologies and products that are designed to help organizations manage user identities and associated access privileges. “We are interested in anything that enhances security, and that’s the value we see with IAD in Windows Server 2008,” says Jason Brown, Principal Network Administrator at ServiceU. “We see IAD as also helping our productivity as it reduces the complexity of identity and access management.”

In summary, SQL Server 2008 and other elements of the Microsoft Application Platform are helping ServiceU enhance its operations and provide ever better services to its customers, including plans for creating next-generation, location-aware services.

 

Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008
Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008 provide a secure and trusted foundation for creating and running your most demanding applications. Combined, the products offer advanced security technology, developer support for the latest platforms, improved management and Web tools, flexible virtualization technology to optimize your infrastructure, and access to relevant information throughout your organization.

For more information about Windows Server 2008, go to: www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

For more information about SQL Server 2008, go to: www.microsoft.com/sql/2008/default.mspx

For more information about Visual Studio 2008, go to: www.microsoft.com/vstudio.

For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com

For more information about ServiceU products and services, call (888) 638-7439 or visit the Web site at: www.serviceu.com

 

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published January 2008