Science & Technology
Science and Technology
Science and Technology
Tue, June 8, 2010 3PAR Delivers Leading Online Grocer With Savings Too Good to Pass Up
FREMONT, CA--(Marketwire - June 8, 2010) - 3PAR® (
The monolithic storage vendor originally positioned a dual-controller, midrange array against the InServ T400 Storage Server. When the customer determined that the dual-controller technology was not comparable to 3PAR's Mesh-Active architecture, the monolithic vendor offered a complimentary high-end array as part of the purchase agreement. However, FreshDirect still chose to stay with 3PAR.
"We were considering the purchase of an array from another storage vendor based on the claim that even their entry-level arrays could do more than 3PAR's high-end arrays," said Robert Reilly, Director Systems Engineering at FreshDirect. "But we quickly found that this just wasn't true. In addition, management tasks we didn't even have to worry about with our InServ required another full-time administrator with the other vendor's arrays. As a result, we chose to go with 3PAR -- not only for the additional capabilities, but for significant cost savings."
Features such as 3PAR Thin Provisioning, which uses disk space only as applications actually require it for written data, have reduced FreshDirect's storage hardware needs by 40 percent as compared to traditional storage. By choosing 3PAR, FreshDirect also saved on the cost of server virtualization. Performance and architectural benefits of the 3PAR InServ platform, such as wide striping and mixed workload support, uniquely enhance virtual machine performance with VMware vSphere™, which allowed FreshDirect to increase virtual machine density per physical server. This, in turn, enabled the online grocer to support its growing business while avoiding the purchase of as many as 50 physical servers -- reducing its physical server footprint by as much as 50%.
"We planned to evaluate multiple storage vendors during our refresh cycle," said Reilly. "At the end, the team was unanimously in favor of 3PAR, despite the competition's last-minute offer to sweeten the deal with a free monolithic array. We chose to stay with 3PAR after our evaluation showed that the InServ offered a lower total cost of ownership and provided a technically superior solution. When it came to the other vendor's proposal, free wasn't cheap enough."
"The decision by FreshDirect to reinvest in 3PAR technology after having evaluated the competition is not surprising to us, as it's a phenomenon that we have observed time and time again among our install base," said 3PAR President and CEO David Scott. "The FreshDirect example shows how the ease of management, high performance, scalability, and flexibility of our InServ arrays offer compelling value, particularly in today's highly virtualized datacenters, even as a customers' data and transaction needs grow over time."
About FreshDirect
[ FreshDirect ] is one of the nation's leading online food brands and grocery providers, known for its convenient home delivery service and the manufacture of fresh, delicious food. Changing the way customers shop for groceries since 2002, the company uses a direct distribution model with in-house, overnight production that cuts out the middleman and helps [ FreshDirect ] offer farm-fresh food at prices up to 20% lower than conventional grocery stores. Every product is [ 100% satisfactory guaranteed ], every time. Thanks to [ expert daily ratings ], [ FreshDirect ] customers can easily shop for best of the season in [ produce ] and [ seafood ]. Only at [ FreshDirect ], the online shopping experience is highly personalized with [ smart shopping features ] that help customers track their favorites, remember missed items, [ shop from previous orders ] and get recommendations on new foods they might like. [ FreshDirect ] has also teamed up with top New York City chefs and restaurants to bring customers [ quick, restaurant-quality prepared meals ], unavailable anywhere else. [ FreshDirect ] has fulfilled more than 11.6 million orders to date. Their ever-expanding service area includes most of Manhattan, locations in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx, as well as parts of New Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester and Nassau County. [ FreshDirect ] ranks 70 on Internet Retailers America's Top 500 guide. For more information, visit [ www.freshdirect.com ].
About 3PAR
3PAR® (
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