Introduction
SoftLayer Technologies of Dallas, Texas is an industry-leading on-demand hosting provider offering world-class datacenter capabilities for small to medium enterprise. SoftLayer provides both gigabit public and private networks to ensure complete control security over the outsourced environment. Comprised of two separate and distinct redundant network architectures, the SoftLayer network•within-the-network design delivers enterprise-level hosting services while adding complete management and flexibility to the outsourced environment.

The Challenge
SoftLayer delivers its next-generation virtual IT environments to thousands of small and medium-sized customers around the world. The company leases servers to customers and needs the flexibility to configure servers with from 2 to 12 drives, a choice of RAID levels, and the ability to mix and match SATA and SAS drives, as the customer requires. To meet the requirements of its unique network infrastructure, the RAID adapters integrated into SoftLayer servers must also provide optimum I/O performance, maximum scalability, and high throughput.

SoftLayer prefers PCI Express (PCIe) connectivity, which allows a single adapter to be used in a wider range of machines, and offers a performance boost over PCI-X. The configuration of SoftLayer servers requires a low-profile form factor.

“The vast majority of our machines are 1U and fitting a full-height card into them is a bit of a challenge. Even in our 2U chassis configurations, we need to be able to place the adapter upright, so once again, a full-height card does not work, as it requires a minimum of 3U,” said Jacob Linscott, SoftLayer Director of IT Systems –UNIX.

To minimize overhead and qualification costs, SoftLayer was looking for a single vendor to provide the full range of raid adapters it needed.

“When we only have to worry about one manufacturer, it lowers our costs by reducing unnecessary inventories of RAID cards and battery-backup units, cutting staff training, and minimizing other overhead,” Linscott said.

The problem is particularly acute for customers using Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, and other popular business applications that generate block-level data. Ethernet-based solutions have typically been used for file data, while scaling and protecting block data previously required a separate Fibre Channel network whose cost and complexity put it out of the range of many businesses.

The Solution
SoftLayer has standardized on Adaptec Unified Serial™ raid adapters with a PCIe interface. The company chose Adaptec adapters for their performance, brand reliability, cost, technology, and future availability.

Adaptec was also the first vendor to offer a comprehensive family of RAIDAdapters for PCIe, including 4- and 8-port low-profile models as well as the industry’s first 12- and 16-port models, which ensured that SoftLayer would have the flexibility it required to meet a wide variety of customer needs. These adapters also integrate the industry’s broadest choice of RAID levels as a standard feature.

“Adaptec RAID solutions have earned a reputation for proven reliability, which is extremely critical for a network infrastructure supporting over 10,000 active servers,” said Linscott. “In addition to rock-solid reliability, Adaptec was the sole vendor that enabled us to completely standardize on a single family of adapters. We looked at LSI and 3ware solutions, but only Adaptec offered a broad line of low- and high-port Unified Serial raid adapters, which we absolutely needed to help scale and maintain our IT infrastructure and better support our rapidly growing customer base.”

“The Adaptec brand has been in this game for a while. The company knows the market and puts out a very solid product. This is always important to us. Simply put, we know they will be there tomorrow when we need more equipment.”



“Adaptec was the sole vendor that enabled us to completely standardize on a single family of adapters. We looked at LSI and 3ware solutions, but only Adaptec offered a broad line of low- and high-port Unified Serial raid adapters, which we absolutely needed to help scale and maintain our IT infrastructure and better support our rapidly growing customer base.”
Jacob Linscott,
SoftLayer Director of IT Systems –UNIX