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 Switch
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