Preferred Credit Chooses Pillar Over NetApp and EqualLogic

Pillar Data Systems announced Preferred Credit selected the Pillar Axiom 300 storage system to manage the company’s data and applications in its production environment. Implemented in conjunction with VMware, the Pillar Axiom is helping Preferred Credit optimize its Oracle and SQL database, as well as its Exchange applications, while laying the groundwork for a complete disaster recovery infrastructure.

Preferred Credit is a finance company that specializes in the direct-to-consumer market. The company experienced rapid growth over the past five years and as a result, required a new storage environment to meet its growing needs – even with a limited budget and staff to manage that system. Additionally, Preferred Credit was looking for a reliable storage platform that works well in a virtualized environment, while optimizing the performance of applications across physical servers.

"Preferred Credit is facing a problem many organizations do as they grow – they need to find the best way to maintain and access their data whenever they need it. This is no easy feat, especially when facing budgetary and resource constraints," said Bob Maness, vice president of marketing, Pillar Data Systems. "Deploying Pillar and VMware was the optimal choice for Preferred Credit’s needs. The combined solution will help them lower costs and easily scale along with their corporate growth. Customers around the world are realizing the performance, utilization and cost benefits achieved through using a virtualized infrastructure consisting of VMware and Pillar."

Preferred Credit chose Pillar over competitors Network Appliance and EqualLogic based on ease of use, flexibility, lower total cost of ownership, and the Axiom’s ability to prioritize LUNs, giving priority to applications they feel are most important – what Pillar calls Application-Aware Storage. With its easy implementation, simple interface, and support from Pillar services, the finance company standardized on Pillar to manage its production.

"Our business is all about customer service. As Preferred Credit continues to grow, we are constantly looking for better ways to meet our customers’ needs," said Steve Halvorson, network administrator, Preferred Credit. "A SAN solution from Pillar not only enabled better data protection, but also provided the quality of service we needed at a cost-effective price. With the Axiom’s Application-Aware capability, we have a greater peace of mind with Pillar as it allows us to truly manage our storage assets more efficiently, while laying the groundwork for disaster recovery."