Sanborn Expands BlueArc Solution

BlueArc Corporation announced that Sanborn has expanded its BlueArc Titan storage infrastructure to streamline and accelerate production of precise photogrammetric maps. A leading provider of geospatial solutions and mapping services, Sanborn depends on the world-record speed and capacity of a pair of BlueArc Titan servers and 50 terabytes of Fibre Channel storage to complete projects on time and on budget, despite shrinking deadlines and escalating file size and volume.

Since earning a reputation for highly detailed fire insurance maps more than a century ago, Sanborn has provided mapping services that today include the collection and compilation of geographic- and location-based data, or geospatial information. Initially, Sanborn chose BlueArc technology to consolidate and simplify storage infrastructure. Now, a second BlueArc Titan server and Fibre Channel storage help Sanborn take advantage of unsurpassed performance and capacity to boost productivity. Sanborn runs approximately 200 processes concurrently and around the clock, and has doubled the number of technicians performing error correction because the storage infrastructure can support the activity.

"Sanborn stakes its reputation on client satisfaction, and while we didn’t want to pass up a high-profile project for a leading search engine, we needed to be certain that we could meet their requirements for both quality and speed," said Doyle Heisler, IT director, Sanborn. "We already knew the kind of IOPS we could expect from the Titan server, and Fibre Channel let us make the most of it-a powerful combination that meant our technicians have become incredibly productive."

One BlueArc Titan server manages the initial transfer of data from aerial surveyors’ cameras to SATA disk archives. The second BlueArc Titan server manages Fibre Channel storage for simultaneous, out-of-sequence data access as technicians correct images to produce richly detailed, extremely accurate maps. A pilot deployment of BlueArc and Fibre Channel storage proved so powerful that technicians were able to rectify 15,000 images in a 24-hour period using a pilot deployment. In contrast, technicians typically processed 1,000 images in the same period with image data stored on SATA disks.

Sanborn’s dramatic gains in productivity correlate to a rise in repeat business from clients such as Maricopa County in Arizona, which awarded Sanborn a new contract based on performance. Heisler said that industry trends reflect growth in project complexity, even as project timelines get shorter and shorter. He says: "If we can’t meet deadlines, we certainly can’t expand our business."