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posted on 16 July 2008 14:32

London, UK, 16th July 2008--3PAR® (NYSE Arca: PAR), the leading global provider of utility storage, announced today that NewsGator Technologies, a pioneer in RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Enterprise 2.0 technologies, has implemented 3PAR Utility Storage to support its mission-critical Microsoft® SQL Server® database applications.

"3PAR already provides a reliable and easy-to-use consolidated storage platform for our Windows Server environment," said Glenn Berry, Database Architect for NewsGator. "With 3PAR's support of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, we can now combine Microsoft's most advanced operating system and database technology with our 3PAR Utility Storage platform to run our business with complete confidence.”

NewsGator’s previous storage environment lacked flexibility and was difficult to manage and scale in response to business changes and rapid growth. With 3PAR Utility Storage, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider has scaled easily within a single, autonomically load-balanced storage system. The decision to deploy 3PAR has allowed NewsGator to enhance their RSS database infrastructure without time-consuming planning activities or costly professional services.

NewsGator develops and markets RSS aggregation solutions for individual end users, enterprises, and online content providers. As part of the company’s RSS aggregation solutions, NewsGator currently estimates that it manages more than 2.5 billion RSS articles using Microsoft SQL Server. Over the next year, NewsGator expects these numbers to climb significantly. In consideration of this anticipated increase, NewsGator determined that database management, storage infrastructure agility, and storage scalability had become critical requirements for their storage environment. NewsGator also determined that it needed to enhance its relational database infrastructure. Accordingly, the NewsGator team sought out a highly virtualised storage platform that would enable greater flexibility and scalability than their previous storage platform.

After evaluating alternatives from traditional Storage Area Network (SAN) vendors, NewsGator selected 3PAR Utility Storage to support its solutions, all of which are built on multiple Microsoft SQL Server databases. NewsGator selected a 3PAR InServ® S400 Storage Server with 50 terabytes of storage and several 3PAR software offerings including 3PAR Dynamic Optimisation, 3PAR Virtual Copy, and 3PAR System Reporter.

3PAR Dynamic Optimisation software is designed to enable users to change data service levels with a single command, online and non-disruptively. This includes the ability to convert between RAID levels, drive types (Fibre Channel and Enterprise-class Serial ATA), and data placement to provide high capacity utilisation while preserving high performance levels.

3PAR Virtual Copy, an innovative thin snapshot technology that requires no upfront space reservations, is designed to provide customers such as NewsGator with efficient copies of their SQL databases and to allow them to revert to any previously created snapshot with a single command. This functionality is important to recovering SQL databases quickly and minimising company recovery time objectives.

3PAR System Reporter is a simple-to-use, Web-based performance and capacity management tool designed to aggregate historical system data for one or more InServ Storage Servers. System Reporter is ideal for troubleshooting, planning, monitoring, and providing information required for Service Level Agreements and chargeback support. NewsGator uses the performance statistics available through System Reporter to plan for and justify needed upgrades.

“SaaS industry professionals are increasingly looking for more cost-efficient ways to effectively scale unpredictable but potentially massive data storage requirements,” said Tom Trainer, Senior Analyst at Analytico, Inc. “3PAR Utility Storage reduces costs while providing the kind of flexibility, ease-of-use, and scalability that a dynamic and growing business requires."

"NewsGator is one of many SaaS providers re-evaluating their storage environments to prepare for potentially high levels of growth," said David Scott, CEO and President of 3PAR. "We are very pleased that, after evaluating traditional alternatives, NewsGator has adopted 3PAR Utility Storage to support its mission-critical SQL Server database environment."

About NewsGator Technologies

NewsGator Technologies is a pioneer in RSS and Enterprise 2.0 technologies. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, NewsGator develops and markets RSS aggregation solutions for individual end users, enterprises, and online content providers. Using NewsGator products and solutions, businesses and consumers can subscribe to news, information, podcasts, and other relevant content more efficiently and effectively than with traditional channels. With NewsGator, users have access to RSS information via the Web, Microsoft Outlook, mobile devices, and both Windows- and Mac-based desktop clients. All NewsGator products synchronise seamlessly, enabling users to read their RSS feeds anywhere, anytime, with any device.

About 3PAR

3PAR® (NYSE Arca: PAR) is the leading global provider of utility storage, a category of highly virtualized, tightly-clustered, and dynamically-tiered storage arrays built for utility computing. Organisations use utility computing to build cost-effective virtualised IT infrastructures for flexible workload consolidation. 3PAR Utility Storage gives customers an alternative to traditional arrays by delivering resilient infrastructure with increased agility at a lower total cost to meet their rapidly changing business needs. As a pioneer of thin provisioning--a green technology developed to address storage underutilisation and inefficiencies--3PAR offers products designed to minimise power consumption and promote environmental responsibility. With 3PAR, customers have reduced the costs of allocated storage capacity, administration, and SAN infrastructure while increasing adaptability and resiliency. 3PAR Utility Storage is built to meet the demands of open systems consolidation, integrated data lifecycle management, and performance-intensive applications. For more information, visit the 3PAR Website at: www.3PAR.com.

^{[Formatted by Paul Warren.]}

© 2008 3PAR Inc. All rights reserved. 3PAR, the 3PAR logo, Serving Information, InServ, InForm, and InSpire are all registered trademarks of 3PAR Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.



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Federica Monsone



A3 Communications - the networked storage PR specialists





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