HPCwire: The Container Store Uses Texas Memory Systems' RamSan

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December 02, 2008

The Container Store Uses Texas Memory Systems' RamSan

The "Neatest Site on the Web" deploys "The World's Fastest Storage" from Texas Memory Systems to prepare for online sales spike after appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show

HOUSTON, Dec. 2 -- Texas Memory Systems, maker of the World's Fastest Storage, today announced that The Container Store, a retailer specializing in storage and organization, deployed the latest solid state disk (SSD) technology to help manage the high volume of Web site traffic resulting from a feature on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Storage and organization products from The Container Store were featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show in November. This stimulated demand and caused a huge increase in Web visitors to www.containerstore.com. This surge in traffic would have caused the Web site to slow down and potential customers to give up. However, in anticipation of the increased traffic the company installed a Texas Memory Systems RamSan-440 solid state disk, the fastest and largest capacity Random Access Memory (RAM) based SSD available. Thanks in part to the RamSan, customers are able to go online and easily order innovative storage systems to de-clutter their homes, and purchase useful gifts for the Holiday season.

The popular television show featured products from The Container Store in a segment encouraging people to de-clutter their homes by getting organized. With more than10,000 innovative products designed to save space and time for closet, kitchen, office and laundry, The Container Store is the go-to place for storage and organization. In addition to a nationwide network of stores staffed with organizational experts, the company maintains a busy and helpful Web site. The Container Store applied the same organizational logic to its computer storage infrastructure. By placing the most frequently accessed Web content on the high- performance RamSan, the company is able to handle surges in traffic such as those prompted by the appearance on the show. Visitors to the Web site can quickly access the resources they need and place orders without frustrating delays.

"As soon as we heard we were going to be featured, we contacted Texas Memory Systems through our reseller, Soccour Solutions," said Tom Birmingham, CTO at The Container Store. "We knew our IT infrastructure was about to be slammed and that we would need a quick and effective way to handle an unprecedented level of concurrent visitors to our site. We needed equipment from Texas Memory Systems in a hurry and they were there for us. Since the show aired on November 13th, our new infrastructure is helping us take maximum advantage of the exposure."

Solid state disks, like Texas Memory Systems' RamSan-440, allow organizations like The Container Store to manage very high transaction volumes and larger numbers of concurrent users with fewer servers, less power, and without excessive application tuning. This increases performance while lowering cost and administration efforts. Typically, solid state disks are deployed alongside traditional hard disk based storage. By categorizing and storing data in the appropriate storage tier, organizations can optimally balance capacity and performance requirements. For example, frequently accessed database tables and indexes may be stored on the RamSan, while less performance-sensitive database components remain on existing hard disk- based storage. The RamSan-440 delivers 600,000 sustained random IOPS and over 4GB/second of sustained random read or write bandwidth, with latency of less than 15 microseconds. Its extreme reliability ensures it is well-suited to the rigors of demanding Enterprise environments.

"The RamSan-440 is an excellent choice for customers looking to deliver high performance solutions that frankly would not be possible with hard disk-based storage systems," said Woody Hutsell, executive vice president of Texas Memory Systems. "The Container Store bet their ability to leverage this opportunity on the RamSan and we are delighted to see them succeed."

Find more information about The Container Store at http://www.containerstore.com. More information about the RamSan-440 is available online at http://www.superssd.com/products/ramsan-440.

About Texas Memory Systems

Texas Memory Systems (http://www.texmemsys.com) designs and builds the World's Fastest Storage and is the market leader in solid state storage systems. Its award-winning RamSan products are used to accelerate enterprise applications like OLTP databases, batch processes, and data warehouses. Founded in 1978, Texas Memory Systems sells directly to large enterprise and government organizations as well as through OEM and reseller partners.

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Source: Texas Memory Systems

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