PingAn is a large insurance company in China that saw a significant increase in email latency after upgrading their Microsoft Exchange Server. They deployed Virident FlashMAX II PCIe SSDs as the storage for Exchange Server across multiple locations to address the latency issues. This resulted in a massive 50x decrease in latency from over 100ms to 2ms, dramatically improving the user experience and productivity.

1. About PingAn
Ping An was ranked No.100 in Forbes’Global
2000 league table in 2012, No.242 in U.S.
Fortune Magazine’s Global 500 Leading
Companies ranking and No.1 among China’s
non-State owned enterprises. Apart from
these accolades, Ping An was ranked No.78 in
WPP Millward Brown’s BrandZ Top 100 Most
Valuable Global Brands.
Shenzen
14 @ 2.2TB + 1.1TB 4 @ 2.2TB + 1.1TB
20 1.1TB’
Shanghai Remote
Offices
PingAn accelerates
Microsoft Exchange Server
by 50X with FlashMAX II
PingAn
Challenge:
Speed user access to Exchange Server 2010 for a large, global organization
PingAn (PingAn Life and PingAn Property & Casualty) is ranked as the
second largest insurance company in China by premium income. PingAn
it has over 550,000 life insurance sales agents and over 200,000 full-time
employees. PingAn’s email services were provided by Microsoft Exchange
Server, with over 100,000 employee mailboxes served using a traditional
NetApp SAN.
In December 2012, after upgrading their Exchange Server version from
2007 to 2010, PingAn noticed that there was a marked increase in latency
of email accesses, to over 100ms in many cases. End user experience was
unsatisfactory, and complaints were inundating their system administra-
tors. To PingAn, whose lifeline to its customers and employees was its
email system, this latency issue not just an annoyance but was costing
them business. Something needed to be done quickly and effectively, with
minimal impact on their systems. After consulting with Microsoft, the
Case Study

2. bottleneck was identified to the NetApp SAN, and immediately PingAn
began a search for a low latency backend to support their email services.
The Solution
PingAn, after an extensive analysis of their storage options, contacted
Leon Xie, the Virident Systems Country Director for China. Leon demon-
strated the benefits of Virident’s FlashMAX II PCI Express SSD and also
explained the Virident’s in-house implementation of the FlashMAX II for
Microsoft Exchange. FlashMAX II 2.2TB and 1.1TB devices were delivered
to PingAn’s labs for a proof of concept implementation. The results were
immediate and convincing: by using the FlashMAX II to implement a
100% flash solution their Exchange Server latency issues were eliminated
quickly and cost effectively.
The Netapp SAN was retired from Exchange duty and replaced with
Virident FlashMAX II devices in both their primary and hot standby serv-
ers (ensuring both low latency and high availability). Primary exchange
servers were set up at the PingAn headquarters in Shenzhen and Shang-
hai: 14 Dell R710 and 4 Dell R710 servers were fitted with 1.1TB and 2.2TB
Virident FlashMAX II devices. These were then replicated to hot standby
servers equipped with a single 1.1TB FlashMAX II device. Deployment went
smoothly and was immediately effective and impressive.
Performance
With the FlashMAX II installed as the primary and hot copy storage for
Microsoft Exchange, their IO bottleneck was addressed completely. The
improvement was a massive, 50x decrease in latency: 100ms with the
NetApp SAN dropped to 2ms with the Virident FlashMAX II solution.
Even better, this solution is easily scalable and manageable. Not that their
Exchange Servers are no longer tied to a large, expensive, monolithic SAN
they are able to add additional IO capacity on a server-by-server basis.
As their user base grows they can simply add a new server to their email
cluster, equipped with Virident FlashMAX II cards.
“Virident is pleased to support
this large-scale deployment of
Exchange mailboxes,” said Leon
Xie, Virident Sales Director for
Asia Pacific. “We believe that the
performance gains and significant
reduction space and power
represent the value that Virident
brings to Enterprise business for
Exchange as well as other mission
critical applications.”.”
– Leon Xie, Virident Sales Director
for Asia Pacific
Case Study
© 2012 HGST, a Western Digital company, 3403 Yerba Buena Road, San Jose, CA 95135 USA, Produced in the United States 9/11, rev. 5/12. All rights reserved.
HGST trademarks are intended and authorized for use only in countries and jurisdictions in which HGST has obtained the rights to use,
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Product specifications provided are sample specifications and do not constitute a warranty. Information is true as of the date of publication and is subject to change. Actual specifica-
tions for unique part numbers may vary.
Please visit the Support section of our website, www.hgst.com/support, for additional information on product specifications. Photographs may show design models.
DSUC109011EN-01

3. © 2012 HGST, a Western Digital company, 3403 Yerba Buena Road, San Jose, CA 95135 USA, Produced in the United States 9/11, rev. 5/12. All rights reserved.
HGST trademarks are intended and authorized for use only in countries and jurisdictions in which HGST has obtained the rights to use,
market and advertise the brand. Contact HGST for additional information. HGST shall not be liable to third parties for unauthorized use of this document or unauthorized use of its
trademarks.
References in this publication to HGST’s products, programs, or services do not imply that HGST intends to make these available in all countries in which it operates.
Product specifications provided are sample specifications and do not constitute a warranty. Information is true as of the date of publication and is subject to change. Actual specifica-
tions for unique part numbers may vary.
Please visit the Support section of our website, www.hgst.com/support, for additional information on product specifications. Photographs may show design models.
DSUC109011EN-01
Case Study
Improvement in speed of email delivery and better end user
experience
With the deployment of the Virident FlashMAX II solution at the PingAn
locations, there was a 98% improvement in the speed of email access for
end users. This superior end user experience allows their staff to be more
productive and spend their time servicing their clients and not waiting for
slow, SAN based email
The Results
Before deploying FlashMAX II
• Primary server with mailboxes stored on a NetApp SAN
• 100ms latency
• Unsatisfactory end user experience, costing real money
After PingAn deploying the Virident FlashMAX II
• Latency reduction of over 50x
• Superior user experience
• Faster email delivery
About Virident Systems
Virident is a provider of server-side flash storage for the enterprise that
delivers unconditional, consistent performance for data-intensive applica-
tions. The inherent advantage associated with this technology revolution-
izes computing by speeding application response time and optimizing
datacenter efficiency for new levels of ROI. Virident is backed by strategic
investors Intel®, Cisco® Systems, Seagate and a storage solutions provider,
as well as Hercules Technology Growth Capital and venture investors
Artiman Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, and Mitsui
Global Investments. For more information, visit http://www.virident.com.