4-page Case Study - Posted 12/31/2008

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CJ Internet

Korean Gaming Company Establishes Strategic Direction for Database Management

CJ Internet, a digital content company based in Seoul, Korea, runs a successful online gaming publishing business. The company employs over 580 people, and runs the largest gaming portal in the country, with over 25 million members. CJ Internet was previously running Microsoft® SQL Server® 2000 and Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005 as its enterprise data platform. CJ Internet was using SQL Server 2000 as its data management infrastructure for internal business and customer service. In August 2008 CJ Internet joined the Microsoft® Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) for Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008. Through RDP, CJ Internet tested potential issues in its existing enterprise data management and technical solutions available in SQL Server 2008. The company was able to establish the mid-to-long term direction for its investment in database management and operations.

Situation

CJ Internet is a digital content company based in Seoul, Korea. Employing over 580 people, CJ Internet runs a successful online gaming publishing business and has entered overseas markets in the United States and Japan.

With certain data management areas becoming growing concerns for companies, we think that SQL Server 2008 will offer a solution to reliably gather, manage and effectively store data and data sources. Lee Jae Jin Team Leader CJ Internet Development Operation Division CJ Internet

CJ Internet was previously running Microsoft® SQL Server® 2000 and Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005 as its enterprise data platform. CJ Internet was using SQL Server 2000 as its data management infrastructure for internal business and customer service.

CJ Internet began upgrading its data platform from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005. While the company was standardizing its enterprise wide database management system on to SQL Server 2005, it became aware of the impending release of a new enterprise data platform.

CJ Internet chose to be part of a Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) to establish the strategic direction for mid-long term investment and operation of data.

Solution

CJ Internet was part of a RDP for Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008. The detailed direction of the RDP was established through close negotiations between CJ Internet Development Operation Division and Microsoft Consulting Services.

Lee Jae Jin, Team Leader, CJ Internet Development Operation Division, CJ Internet, says, “During this program we wanted to verify compression, encryption and audit, which have changed significantly in SQL Server 2008. Personally I was curious about Merge Sentence and the hierarchy structure of data support, so I decided to test them through this opportunity.”

CJ Internet Development Operation Division was interested in these functions as part of its long-term plans for enterprise data management.

Lee says, “Reliability and availability were key features when SQL Server 2000 was released. In SQL Server 2005, manageability was greatly enhanced to automate management tasks that were previously conducted manually.”

“With certain data management areas recently becoming growing concerns for companies, we think that SQL Server 2008 will offer a solution to reliably gather, manage and effectively store data and data sources,” Lee adds.

CJ Internet began migration from the target server installed with SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2008 as part of its preparation for testing. It then began testing data compression, encryption, audit, Merge Sentence and the hierarchy structure for data support.

Evaluation of the data compression function in SQL Server 2008 exceeded CJ Internet’s expectations. Results of testing showed that during backup, the compression rate was 73 percent and there was no time difference between backup and restoration. Having tested the compression functionality of SQL Server 2008, CJ Internet confirmed that it could develop its work systems related to current data compression and backup.

CJ Internet’s produces less than 10TB of data per day on average. During data compression the company performs selective compression where it uses only use third party tools if the size of the data is large.

Lee comments, “According to the compression criteria of our current system, 50GB or more of data are targets for compression. However with SQL Server 2008, we can compress all data at the database level, regardless of size. This shows us the potential of data manageability.” He adds, “In future if we can strengthen compression and backup at the database level, then SQL Server 2008 is more advantageous than third party tools in terms of management efficiency as well as technical support.”

Encryption testing consisted of cell-level encryption and Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), a database level encryption. Through this task, CJ Internet realized that it could apply TDE cell encryption and reduce encryption development and management costs. Lee comments, “Data protection is no longer a corporate issue but instead is a personal issue. If personal information or key business information is leaked externally, then the effects can result in community as well as national economic risks. As such, interest in encryption of data at the database level is greatly increasing and SQL Server 2008 showed the potential to appropriately satisfy market demands for encryption.”

The third area to be tested was the audit function. One of the functions that caught the interest of CJ Internet’s Development Operation Division is system resources usage rate. The audit function when tested in SQL Server 2008 did not place load on the system. Lee says, “The need for audit is growing everyday but this is not an easy task to perform. For instance, if someone uploads incorrect data, it can take a long time to determine who, when, how and why. Moreover we have to consider system load when performing audits. With SQL Server 2008, there is no need for these concerns.”

Database administrators were curious about the Merge Sentence and the hierarchy structure of data support provided in SQL Server 2008, and were satisfied with the test results. In the case of Merge Sentence, it showed a more than two times performance enhancement compared with the existing system, while the hierarchy structure for data support showed high performance and efficiency.

Benefits

SQL Server 2008 RDP provided the momentum for CJ Internet to test key performance indicators relating to data management and operations, and database investment.

Reduced TCO

Through the Microsoft RDP CJ Internet Development Operation Division was able to review almost all areas of data related its total cost of ownership. Lee comments, “Offering an outstanding compression function means that companies that must manage huge amounts of data like CJ Internet, need not use separate compression tools, which results in a significant reduction in license costs. Also, high compression efficiency naturally means a reduction in disc space usage and therefore a rationalization of physical infrastructure investment.”

Increased Data Storage Flexibility

In addition to cost reductions, other benefits include flexibility of storing data. Lee says, “From a management perspective, we can extend the data storage period if backup and compression are strengthened at the database level. Departments or tasks that place importance in managing data can flexibly adjust the storage period, enabling database administrators to respond more effectively to demands for collaboration.”

Improved Security

CJ Internet can use SQL Server 2008 to meet its data management obligations and national regulations. SQL Server 2008 with its audit and encryption functions ensures companies meet privacy and other regulations about data. Lee says, “CJ Internet has its gaming businesses database and its database for internal business. Authorization to its internal database is limited to a few stakeholders. However there are times when published game related companies need access to the database, making auditing increasingly complex.”

“The need for auditing increases with more reported cases of security incidents. SQL Server 2008’s audit function offers fast and accurate tracking of security violations such as incorrect data upload and hacking,” Lee adds.

“Security is no longer the work of a dedicated department in a company. The time has come for extending audit and encryption tasks from the security department to the database operation department and they should cooperate with each other,” says Lee.

Meets Mid and Long Term Plans

The SQL Server 2008 RDP has supported CJ Internet in meeting its mid-to-long term plans for advancing its data platform. Based on its experiences in the RDP, CJ Internet plans to advance its infrastructure to Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 by 2010. In accordance with these plans, the company initially plans to deploy SQL Server 2008 for its business database, and then expand deployment to other areas of the organization.