Major Mortgage Company
SQL Server 2000 Upgrade
Call Us: 469-635-6200
Introduction
This company is a full-service professional mortgage banker licensed to provide residential mortgages across the nation. They are an emerging leader in the mortgage industry and a preferred lender for consumers and mortgage professionals across the country. They operate through three loan production channels: retail, wholesale and correspondent.
Problem/Opportunity
As a financial institution their applications, databases, and networks are closely monitored and audited by several regulatory bodies. They needed to upgrade their SQL Server 2000 databases that form the backend of their Loan Origination Service (LOS) application in order to meet minimum security compliance as required by the auditing entities. Additionally, they experienced growth in their satellite offices and user base, which in turn created a higher workload demand. Existing hardware and software struggled to keep pace with the current growth, let alone the expected growth over the next 18 months.
This Mortgage Company needed a solution that would meet their auditing and compliance needs, create confidence that their existing applications would be compatible on the new SQL Server 2008 platform, and build a new database environment capable of higher performance and scalable to keeping up with expected growth. They needed to accomplish all of this while simultaneously minimizing downtime, improving availability, and maintaining the current application user experience. Scalability Experts was selected to help because of their deep SQL Server and mission critical application experience
Solution/Capabilities
SE completed a series of steps which ultimately lead to the customer going live with Scalability Experts recommended environment. The engagement included:
- Performed extensive data collection and analysis of their business, application, database and infrastructure including virtual servers, network devices, SAN and fabric, and Operating System configuration.
- Developed recommendations based on extensive experience, deep knowledge of industry standards, and best practices
- Performed baseline interoperability and performance analysis of production workload requirements.
- Developed an upgrade plan from various options that minimizes system downtime, ensures business continuity, and provides safe and effective regression options.
- Utilized tools such as Windows Performance Monitor and customized scripts to understand the performance of new applications and servers targeted to host new applications.
- Performed the SQL Server Application Compatibility Lab to ensure compatibility between SQL Server 2008 R2 and existing applications.
- Assisted with setting up a new production environment, including moving very large databases, optimally configuring the new server operating systems, and configuring services such as DNS. This included configuring Dell PowerEdge R620 servers, optimizing the environment, and configuring Microsoft SQL Server 2008.
- Worked with the customer to properly utilize database snapshots to regress databases back to their original state after completing upgrade tests.
- Assisted the FAMC Technical Team with the entire Go Live process, and led the customer through a successful launch of their new production database environment.
Results
SE successfully implemented the upgrade from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2008 R2. This customer’s new platform and environment has been running flawlessly providing greater availability and performance as well as eliminating any regulation requirement issues they had. According to their CFO, “this project was a huge win for IT.”
SE resources
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