• Challenge:
  • Trader Media Group’s automotive Web site, www.autotrader.co.uk, was suffering from its success. Its increasing popularity (over 4.3 million users conducting 40 million searches each month) was taxing an older, ill-equipped system.
  • In addition to struggling with increased usage, the IT team needed to balance workloads such as planning for higher usage during the day, and reporting at night.
  • The team was also tasked to purchase a new infrastructure with investment protection in mind- the new technology would be required to affordably scale up to meet future needs.
• Solution:
  • Trader Media Group selected AMD Opteron™ processor-based Sun Fire™ V20z x64 (x86, 64-bit) servers from Sun Microsystems to power two Web sites,
    AutoTrader.co.uk and its complementary disaster-recovery site.
  • Trader Media Group leveraged AMD64 technology and open systems to migrate and integrate its numerous diverse applications to the Oracle 10g database running on Sun Fire servers.
  • Sun Fire servers powered with the AMD Opteron processor supports a disaster-recovery site that enables 100 percent availability of business-critical operations.
• Impact:
  • Sun Fire systems with the AMD Opteron™ processor delivered a dramatic increase in capacity, enabling the company to manage a 40 percent year-on-year growth in business and increase queries from 40 million to 50 million per month.
  • Migrating all Auto Trader applications to Oracle 10g database powered by the AMD Opteron processor enabled Trader Media Group to save time and money by eliminating costly integration challenges.

Organizational Profile
Wholly owned by the Guardian Media Group, Trader Media Group (TMG) publishes over 70 publications on a weekly basis, including Auto Trader. With annual profits in excess of £280million, TMG employs over 4,000 employees, and is located in over 35 locations throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. TMG also has three international operations located in Holland, Italy and South Africa.

Challenge
Following a successful re-launch in 2001, www.autotrader.co.uk witnessed a rapid rise in Web site traffic, one that began to test existing server equipment. The infrastructure was ill-equipped to manage the 40 million queries per month and users were becoming frustrated with delays in their searches for used-car bargains. Additionally, the day/night workload needed careful balancing: the mostly-daytime trail of visitors to the www.autotrader.co.uk site demanded speedy results on their search requests, but vital batch-processing jobs also needed regular attention. Soon, the strain was becoming evident and fearful of disappointing, and therefore losing its growing user base, Trader Media Group tasked a team with updating the Auto Trader Web site’s aging infrastructure. Data Operations Manager Shahid Mohammed was a key member of that group.

"We had numerous issues to address,"Shahid explained, "not least of which was a 40 percent year-on-year increase in business that was obviously placing taxing demands on existing IT infrastructure. We needed to better manage an unbalanced daytime and evening workload, improve search response times, allow for future expansion of services and demonstrate a much better return on investment."

Additionally, the task force was requested to find a solution that could provide 100 percent availability, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 365 days of the year.

Solution
Though long discussed on an informal basis, planning and procurement of a refreshed backroom system for Auto Trader’s Web site properly began early in 2004. It was determined that both new software and hardware would be required. Trader Media Group’s IT task force determined that powerful server equipment based on 64-bit AMD Opteron™ processors could resolve these concerns. According to Shahid, only AMD64 technology could deliver processors with the technology necessary to satisfy the firm’s exacting demands, both immediate and long into the future.

"For a variety of reasons, "began Shahid, "we needed high-performing server solutions with 64-bit technology. We quickly realized that the AMD Opteron processor with its Direct Connect Architecture was the right choice."

In collaboration with his IT co-workers, Shahid drew up a strategy that would eventually see the Auto Trader Web site being driven by 20 dual-processor (2P) Sun Fire V20z servers, individually powered by pairs of single-core AMD Opteron processors Model 244 working in unison. In addition, five more-powerful Sun Fire V40z servers from Sun Microsystems were ordered to integrate the system and act as Oracle Real Application Clusters Database Servers. These called on leading-edge AMD Opteron processors Model 850, in four-chip configurations.

However, that was, literally, only one-half of the picture. To meet the business-critical requirement for uninterruptible operation, the infrastructure was replicated in its entirety at a second remote site. As Shahid detailed:

"We accepted early on that we would need to mirror everything at our disaster-recovery site, so we in effect had to double-up on all our purchases and installations. This was another key factor in our decision to choose servers using AMD64 processors. Servers employing rival processors were tested but, quite simply, those using AMD64 technology were deemed by our group to represent the best price/performance for our demanding performance needs."

Impact
Since procuring the AMD Opteron processor-based Sun Fire servers from Sun Microsystems, the Auto Trader Web team has experienced dramatic improvements in capacity and failover at an affordable price. The team is confident that the new AMD Opteron processor-based servers can deal with twice as much traffic - some 80 million search requests in any single month. Moreover, the company’s system is now easily scalable, meaning Auto Trader’s online services can be bolstered by the addition of further AMD Opteron processor-powered servers at any time. As Shahid explained:

"We have experienced up to 40 percent year-on-year increases in demand. The new AMD Opteron processor-powered system has doubled the capacity of our old set-up and we are confident that we can manage capacity not only to meet today’s needs but also for future needs. We can scale the system and increase capacity by simply adding additional server boxes."

Additionally, in conjunction with the move to Sun Microsystems’ Sun Fire servers powered by AMD Opteron processors, www.autotrader.co.uk migrated its numerous applications to Oracle 10g database to streamline processes. As a result of integrating the various applications into one system, any one of the Auto Trader office’s numerous 2P AMD Opteron processor-based Sun Fire V20z servers is able to run company applications on demand.

With the remote disaster-recovery site’s 2P AMD Opteron processor-powered Sun Fire V20z servers and 4P AMD Opteron processor-based Sun Fire V40z servers on standby, and data being constantly exchanged between the two sites across a 1Gbit connection, Auto Trader’s desire to supply uninterrupted - and uninterruptible - online services is assured.

"The AMD Opteron™ processor offers outstanding powerful computing capacity and investment protection and is the price/performance leader. In addition to meeting scalability requirements for today, we can rest assured we can easily leverage the AMD Opteron processor to meet tomorrow’s needs. Also, the reliability provided by the Sun Microsystems’ Sun Fire™ servers powered with the AMD Opteron processor gives us a competitive advantage, providing our customers rapid results of their searches around the clock."-Shahid Mohammed, data operations manager, Trader Media Group

About AMD
AMD (NYSE:AMD) designs and produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to helping to delivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology users, ranging from enterprises to government agencies and individual consumers. For more information, visit www.amd.com.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
A singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world's most important markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at sun.com.

AMD, AMD Opteron and the AMD Arrow logo are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright 2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Sun Fire and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.