Helixstorm Helps Road Runner Sports With Database Migration
To underpin the essential operations of Road Runner Sports, the well-known sports retailer utilizes its Oracle E-Business Suite. Over time, the database has been tailored with critical custom scripting and processes. However, the challenge arose when the Oracle database was hosted on aging HP PA-RISC N-class servers, nearing the end of their hardware support. To ensure continued business operations, the company required a migration to a fully supported platform, which needed to be executed carefully to preserve the database's portability along with all customizations and processes. “As we approached the final year of hardware support, we recognized the necessity to migrate for both support and maintenance purposes,” explained Travis Burke from Road Runner Sports. “Given that we operate 24/7, minimizing downtime during the migration was a major concern. We needed to ensure the migration was completed without disrupting our business while preserving the integrity of the database.”
For this endeavor, Road Runner Sports turned to Helixstorm, a trusted partner for years. Helixstorm provided a comprehensive solution for the sports retailer, offering migration planning, new hardware, and migration services without causing any business disruption. “We’ve relied on Helixstorm for nearly four years for support related to our HP-UX operating systems and hardware, as well as for SAN solutions,” Burke noted. “We trusted them to handle everything from hardware specifications and migration planning to on-site support during the go-live process. The advantage of having a single partner like Helixstorm is that it eliminates the potential for finger-pointing between vendors. Everything is coordinated by one reliable partner.”
Helixstorm suggested new Itanium servers housed in an HP Blade C-7000 chassis. They organized the migration to occur over a single weekend, minimizing user disruption and limiting downtime. The migration proceeded flawlessly, adhering to the plan and resulting in no interruptions for users. All of Road Runner Sports’ customizations, scripts, and processes were smoothly transferred to the Itanium platform. Consequently, Road Runner Sports has experienced significant performance enhancements and no longer faces concerns about expired hardware support and maintenance agreements.