Moving into high gear — Autologue
Autologue has over 30 years of history in the automotive aftermarket, and today sells turn-key systems throughout the world to over 1,500 customers. Autologue’s computer systems power warehouse distributors in multiple locations, as well as ePart, an online automotive parts catalog. With so many small and large auto shops around the country counting on Autologue’s systems, it’s no wonder they need the engines to be running 24/7, 365 days a year. When Michael Powers from Autologue first spoke to DataSource representatives, he made it clear that the company’s top priorities were aimed at best-in-class customer service. Autologue wanted to ensure: 1) Zero downtime for customers 24x7x365. 2) Continued growth without the growing pains. With those goals clear, we visited with Autologue’s IT staff and performed a pre-assessment of the infrastructure that supports the ePart application. The meeting resulted in DataSource developing a network with uninterrupted access with continuous data replication for the ePart application, as well as automatic failover. This ensures that clients never experience any disturbance and maintains a happy and satisfied relationship with Autologue.
Details
Specifically, we built on the company’s familiarity with Dell hardware and service, which provides the web and database servers needed to run the ePart application. We combined this with Microsoft Cluster services on the SQL servers and installed an iSCSI Storage area network (SAN) for the shared data. We purposely recommended this SAN because it allows for a “pay as you grow” model, increasing the storage capacity to handle further expansion of the database. As Autologue continues to grow, so will its systems.
To ensure Autologue’s data, we implemented Double Take Software’s replication technology. This means that the ePart server is always available to customers, even if the hardware running the application experiences a single point of failure. The database can quickly be brought back online from another server without customers noticing any disruption at all.
For managed growth and better response, we also implemented load balancing and failover. This allows traffic to be diverted to a secondary web server seamlessly when demand grows too high. And, of course, if a server becomes unavailable due to failure or maintenance, this secondary server immediately takes over so that customers never see the downtime.
All in all, DataSource provided Autologue with practical, cost-efficient solutions to their goals using many of the components they already had in-house. Autologue’s many customers are happier than ever with no downtime and disruptions. And with all the parts necessary for growth in place, Autologue’s future is looking even brighter.
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