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Your source for the latest insights on HP Integrity, mission critical computing, and other relevant server and technology topics from the BCS team.

Calling all Systems Administrators: Did you rest easy on Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Kirksblog| December 5, 2009
3 Comments

Cyber Monday is one of the most critical days of the year for retail.  Black Friday is also increasingly turning digital as savvy retailers post special promotions online to capture sales from those who don't care to brave the 4am crowds after digesting big holiday meals.  Today, many would rather stay put at home (and me among them!), shopping via keyboard, cozy in pajamas.  So, who sweated while watching online response time slow to a crawl or rushed to bring systems back online while revenue leapt to competitor sites? 



Press reports show that some major retailers experienced unfortunate site crashes over the holiday weekend again this year.  This type of press coverage is most certainly not appreciated by shareholders, management, current or future customers. 


Causes for these problems can often be attributed to the effects of unexpected spikes in visitor traffic.  As online shopping grows in popularity and becomes available on more and more web enabled devices that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, handling these spikes in traffic is critical to winning the availability battle.  Why would a customer wait for one site to respond, when they can easily type their way to another?  Those who watch over mission-critical systems deserve better than bedside beepers, sleepless nights and a lot of stress from uncertainty.



Over the past 35 years, HP has taken solving mission-critical system challenges very seriously.   Our customers know HP Integrity NonStop systems can handle huge transaction spikes with confidence.  We've been diligent to ensure that NonStop offers the highest levels of availability and scalability in the industry, with up to 99.999% uptime out of the box.  Add to that substantially lower TCO than mainframes and it is easy to see why customers such as Chico's choose HP Integrity servers to handle their most critical workloads.                                                                               


Finally, I'd like to share with you some comments from one of our retail customers who rested easy these past few days.    Jim Lance, CIO of Bon-Ton stores was extremely pleased at how well the current Integrity NonStop system handled sales volumes on "Black Friday"- traditionally their busiest shopping day of the year. "We were able to complete all processing and deliver all sales files off the NonStop system in record time, with all reports produced by 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning," he says. "That made it almost like a normal business day, even though the volume was dramatically bigger." With the new Integrity NonStop BladeSystem, Lance expects to see even more impressive performance.


Full story:  http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA3-0219ENW&cc=us&lc=en


So readers, share your stories.   Which companies exceeded your online shopping expectations and which disappointed?  How confident were you that your servers could handle 2009's Black Friday and Cyber Monday transaction volume?


Lorraine 


 


 


 


 

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Labels: BCS| Black Friday| Cyber Monday| HP Integrity| HP Integrity NonStop| mission critical servers
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About the Author
  • Kirk Bresniker is the Vice President/Chief Technologist for HP Business Critical Systems where he has technical responsibility for all things Mission Critical, including HP-UX, NonStop and scalable x86 platforms. He joined HP in 1989 after graduating from Santa Clara University and has been an HP Fellow since 2008.
  • I’m the worldwide marketing manager for HP NonStop. I’ll be blogging and tweeting out news as it relates to NonStop solutions – you can find me here and on twitter at @CarolynatHP
  • Cynthia is part of the HP ExpertOne team. ExpertOne offers professional IT training and certifications from infrastructure refresh to areas that span across the datacenter like Cloud and Converged Infrastructure.
  • I have worked with NonStop systems since 1982. I am a Master Technologist for HP and am part of the IT SWAT organization, the Cloud SWAT and work with HP Labs. I report into the Enterprise Solutions and Architecture organization.
  • Joe Androlowicz is a Technical Communications and Marketing manager in HP’s NonStop Product Division. Joe is a 25 year journeyman in information systems design, instructional technologies and multimedia development. He left Apple Computer for Tandem Computers to help launch G03 and hasn’t looked back yet. He previously managed the program management team for the NonStop Education and Training Center and drove the development and growth of the NonStop Certification programs.
  • As a recent college graduate I am new to the world of converged infrastructure, cloud and big data. I am very excited about the innovation HP can bring to the future of mission critical IT.
  • Hello! I am a social media manager for servers, so my posts will be geared towards HP server-related news & info.
  • HP Editor-Enterprise Group: ISS, BCS, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Converged Cloud, Converged App Systems (CAS), and ExpertOne
  • I’m the Worldwide Product Marketing Manager for HP Serviceguard Solutions for Linux in BCS. I’ll be blogging about the latest news and enhancements as it relates to this product.
  • Greetings! I am on the HP Enterprise Group marketing team focused on Content Marketing for Business Critical Systems. Topics I am interested in include mission-critical computing, scale up x86, and Converged Infrastructure, Converged Systems.
  • As a Managing Consultant for HP’s Enterprise Solution & Architecture group, I collaborate with client business and IT senior management to understand, prioritize and architect advanced use of data and information, drawing insights required to make informed business decisions. My current focus leverages event-driven business intelligence design techniques and technologies to identify patterns, anticipate outcomes and proactively optimize business response creating a differentiated position in the marketplace for the client.
  • Vinay Gupta is an HP Distinguished Technologist and the NonStop Manageability Architect. He joined Tandem in 1994 after graduating from Indian Institute of Technology. He has worked on many NonStop manageability applications over time. He works across various groups within NonStop and HP to ensure consistency and interoperability in manageability interfaces and applications. He is also a member of DMTF workgroups.
  • Wendy Bartlett is a Distinguished Technologist in HP’s NonStop Enterprise Division, and focuses on dependability – security and availability - for the NonStop server line. She joined Tandem in 1978. Her other main area of interest is system architecture evolution. She has an M.S. degree in computer science from Stanford University.
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