A 150 TB Microsoft SQL Server database, live in two data centers on a petabyte of storage
A balance-sheet risk analytics firm that serves banks and financial institutions, with models for interest-rate risk, net interest income and valuation. A leader in its segment.
- Scale
- 1 PB storage, 150+ TB database, 1 TB+ RAM and 128 cores per production server, New York + New Jersey, SOC 2
- Engagement
- Design, build, colocation and operation
The challenge
The firm's analytics database had grown past 150 terabytes, and its clients' decisions depended on it. It needed two live copies, one active and one standby, plus backups it could restore from any day, week or month, without a single point of failure anywhere.
What our team delivered
- About one petabyte of storage, designed and built end to end
- Two live copies of the database, active and standby, on Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise
- SQL Server Enterprise availability design with an active and a standby copy, so the database survives the loss of a server, a storage array or a site
- Enterprise-grade SAS SSDs for both live copies, in custom RAID 5 arrays behind independent RAID controllers
- Backup copies on enterprise iSCSI storage with HPE MSA controllers, kept on daily, weekly and monthly retention
- Production servers with more than 1 TB of RAM and 128 cores each
- State-of-the-art compute hardware for the firm's mathematical and risk calculations
- Redundant colocated data centers in New York and New Jersey
- Redundant everything: firewalls, switches and power supplies, so the platform can recover from a disaster
- Guided the firm through its entire SOC 2 effort and its other compliance certifications, and took care of the regulatory requirements behind them: controls, evidence and documentation
Result
A database of more than 150 TB running live in two places at once, with tested backups on three retention tiers and no single point of failure from the firewall to the power supply. The same team carried the firm through SOC 2 and its other required certifications. It is the reference for our SQL Server work.
Per-rack bandwidth, 10G to 100G
Aggregate uplink capacity from one rack to the spine, with four uplinks per rack. 10G SFP+ (10GBASE-SR, IEEE 802.3ae) gives 40 Gb/s, 25G SFP28 (25GBASE-SR, 802.3by) gives 100 Gb/s, and 100G QSFP28 (100GBASE-SR4, 802.3bm) gives 400 Gb/s. Illustrative.
Defense in depth, on a loop
Every device on your network sits behind a monitored firewall with two internet circuits, so attacks are stopped at the door and a provider outage does not stop the business.
Super Intelligence data flow
Every request is classified by sensitivity, so confidential data stays on models inside your walls while routine work can use the best frontier AI.
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