Asite provides an open platform called the Asite CDE that enables companies in the construction industry to collaborate, plan, design, and build capital projects with seamless information sharing across the entire supply chain.
The Environment
The Asite CDE platform relies on several SQL Server databases and a critical file system. Downtime for these vital components could cause costly interruption of operation for end-users who rely on the CDE platform for coordinating and managing activities at large construction projects. To protect these critical applications from downtime, Asite IT team was running SQL Server and the file system in Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) environments using a third-party managed hosting provider. “In today’s world, moving to a cloud environment seems to be an attractive choice. There are many benefits attached to it, that managed hosting environments like the one we had been using doesn’t provide,” said Rupendrasingh Butola, Director of Platform Operations, Asite. Asite runs its Asite CDE Platform in its seven production data centers, and in three additional locations dedicated to quality assurance. They also run workloads in several cloud environments, including AWS EC2, Microsoft Azure, and BIOSME.
The Challenge
Asite wanted to migrate their CDE platform as well as the SQL Server database and file system it relies on to a public cloud environment. For this migration to be successful, they needed to ensure they could provide the same level of high availability protection in the cloud as they have in their managed hosting environment.
The Evaluation
The Asite R&D team evaluated several options for providing high availability for their critical SQL Server databases and file system in the public cloud. They wanted a solution that would integrate seamlessly with WSFC, and failover across nodes located in different availability zones and regions for disaster recovery protection. They also wanted a solution that supports both Microsoft Azure and AWS EC2 cloud environments. The R&D team reviewed several options for high availability before narrowing down their list to SIOS Technology.
The Solution
Asite currently uses SIOS DataKeeper to maintain the high availability of its business-critical Microsoft SQL Server database and filesystem clusters on its global multicloud environment – and in the production environment in seven of its data centers. Asite migrated SQL Server and their file system to Microsoft Azure. by creating a WSFC environment, then added SIOS DataKeeper host-based, block-level replication to create a flexible SANless cluster. SIOS DataKeeper synchronizes local storage on each cluster node, making it appear to WSFC as traditional shared storage. The SIOS software enables WSFC to fail over across cloud availability zones and regions.
The Results
Asite currently runs its SQL Server databases and file system in Microsoft Azure cloud. “High availability is the most critical aspect of the Asite CDE platform,” said Mr. Butola. “With our transition from a managed hosting environment to a multicloud environment, database high availability was a major concern. SIOS DataKeeper has helped us overcome this concern and removed a potential showstopper in our plans to move Asite to a public cloud environment.” Asite also uses SIOS DataKeeper with SSD storage in the public cloud as well as in on-premises virtual servers. The SIOS cluster implementation process was user-friendly. Documentation, too, was clear and helpful. “We were able to implement the SIOS DataKeeper product simply by following the documentation,” said Mr. Butola. “The seamless transition of databases, as well as file system cluster nodes, has made us confident in our selection.”
The Benefits
Asite realized a variety of benefits by using SIOS DataKeeper, including:
- High availability of the services (Database and Filesystem)
- Seamless transition of the services
- Carefree maintenance of the platform
- Responsive support in case of any queries
“SIOS is the reason why we have not worried about the database and file system high availability,” said Mr. Butola “SIOS software enabled us to successfully migrate these business-critical workloads to our multicloud environment and, as a result, to reduce our platform operating costs significantly.”