3PAR Takes a Census

3PARdata Inc. has replaced Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) at the U.S. Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies, according to people familiar with the project.

Neither 3PAR nor the Census Bureau would confirm the replacement, which 3PAR described generally in a press release this week (see Census Bureau Taps 3PAR). But sources outside the vendor and the agency say the center, which serves U.S. universities and other institutions with census data, was limited by its old storage system, comprised of four Solaris-based servers and direct-attached storage from Sun.

The sources say the Center's new setup is based on a centrally located 3PAR InServ dual-processor array with 35 Tbytes of capacity. The system has been steadily expanding via 3PAR's "thin provisioning" technique since it was installed more than a year ago. Thin provisioning, 3PAR says, treats stored applications, such as databases, as though they have more physical disk storage than they actually do (see 3PAR Spins Disk Trick). The goal is to allow companies to save on buying disk storage before it's really required.

3PAR's array supports RAID Level 5 and works with Net Backup software from Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS). The 3PAR unit is attached to 12 servers from Supermicro Computer Inc. running SUSE Linux and six tape libraries from Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK).

Sun, which has listed the Census Bureau as a customer for at least two years, had no comment on news of its replacement in this particular application. It's not clear what other storage installations Sun may still have with the Bureau.For its part, the Census Bureau's gone mum on this case study, refusing to be interviewed for this article. But in 3PAR's release the agency acknowledged a problem, without naming vendors. Scaleability limits made it tough to add new data or service remote users, and administration across sites was difficult, the release states. "Our users were stifled by an inflexible environment," Darrin Stolba, project lead for the Bureau's Research Data Center upgrade, is quoted as saying in 3PAR's release.

Note: The Research Data Centers, according to 3PAR, are secure facilities located across the U.S. that provide Census Bureau data to a range of institutions and agencies, via thin-client devices.

The new architecture, 3PAR claims, has given the Bureau a smorgasboard of benefits, including a 300 percent increase in data capacity; a 95 percent decrease in administration expenses; and $100,000 savings in host-volume management software.

3PAR's experience shows the readiness of government agencies to spend on new systems -- and in the process to ditch established players in favor of new companies. The news illustrates why so many startups have earmarked the federal market as key to their success (see Isilon's Focused on Feds, Input Estimates Fed Computer Spending, Homeland Spending Secures Storage, MTI Sets Up Federal Biz, and GlassHouse Wins GSA Contract).

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch0