ISV Improves Service Levels and Reduces Cost of Delivering Software As a Service

Microsoft Customer Solution Service Provider Solutions Case Study

ISV Improves Service Levels and Reduces Cost of Delivering Software as a Service

Overview “We’ll know early on if a server has a problem, and Country: United States we can then fix that problem before the server stops Industry: Information Technology and the customer loses access to our application. Customer Profile That’s key for customer satisfaction.” Vertafore provides software and services to insurance agents, brokers, carriers, Dominique Laborde, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Vertafore banks, managing general agencies, and other distributors of insurance and financial services. Vertafore had begun offering its flagship insurance software as an Business Situation online service, and more and more customers were moving away Vertafore needed a way to manage its expanding server farm more effectively from running the software locally and taking advantage of the and cost-efficiently. service. But as the Vertafore data center expanded toward 300

Solution Microsoft® Windows®–based server computers, administrators Vertafore chose to deploy an integrated found themselves stretched to maintain and ensure the set of management and application hosting tools from the Microsoft® Solution performance of the servers. Looking for a more efficient and cost- for Windows®-based Hosting. effective way to manage its online offering, Vertafore turned to the

Benefits Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting. The solution offers  Reduced alert notification times to centralized monitoring, reporting, and server software update seconds  Resolve problems 30-50 times faster management, helping administrators monitor and manage the than previously expanding server farm more efficiently. The solution also will help  Install security updates to all servers in as little as 15 minutes save thousands of dollars in overhead and ensure more rapid  Build new servers 7.5 times faster than recovery in the event of a disaster. previously Situation administrator’s time each month. Adding The AMS Services division of Vertafore offers application and security updates to so many policy rating and management software for servers was also taking more and more time. insurance professionals. Some Vertafore As for monitoring the servers and ensuring customers run the software on their own application performance levels, hardware and in their own offices, but administrators had eight different thousands rely on Vertafore to deliver the monitoring consoles to watch, and software as a hosted service. These clients sometimes they still found themselves depend on Vertafore to keep these critical getting calls about servers running slowly. business systems up and running, and to ensure that the databases housing their Vertafore wanted to find a way to run its data policies and user records remain available center more efficiently and cost-effectively. It and uncompromised. needed a way to build and update servers quickly. It needed monitoring and reporting Yet with more than 275 Microsoft® tools that would keep track of a broader Windows®–based server computers on the range of conditions and provide faster alerts data center floor as of the end of 2004, to administrators. Vertafore system administrators were finding The Solution for Windows-based Hosting it ever more difficult to monitor and maintain Solution enables an ISV to deploy precisely the the environment. The data center was Microsoft and eQuest Technologies showed modules that it requires to meet its growing by an average of nine servers per Vertafore how it could improve service specific business needs month, and building those servers manually delivery, increase operational efficiency, and required 12 to 15 hours of an save thousands of dollars in operating costs on an ongoing basis through use of the Microsoft® Solution for Windows®-based Hosting version 3.0. The solution also could Microsoft help the company rebuild its growing server Module Technology Function farm more quickly than ever in the event Server Automated Automate multiserver builds, and accelerate that its data center suffered a catastrophic Purposi Deployment the process of deploying Windows-based disaster. ng Services servers. Quickly rebuild servers following a disaster. The Solution for Windows-based Hosting provides a centralized and automated Centrali Active Directory® Centrally manage users, accounts, servers, zed service group policies, services, and security. management infrastructure to help Manage independent software vendors (ISVs) ment improve service levels, reduce costs, and Monitori Microsoft Proactively monitor hosted applications and increase margins. Tested and supported by ng and Operations data center operations. Microsoft, the solution provides best Reporti Manager practices, tools, scripts, and code samples to ng help Vertafore efficiently deploy and operate Service Microsoft Automate routine administrative service its hosted software offerings on the Windows Provisio Provisioning management tasks such as adding new operating system. The solution’s integrated ning System users and provisioning applications and modules offer substantial flexibility, ensuring services.

Update Microsoft Software Centralize and automate the process of Manage Update Services performing software and security updates. ment that an ISV can deploy precisely the modules clusters running Microsoft SQL Server™ that it needs to meet its specific business 2000, 6 Web servers running Windows 2000 needs. Vertafore is using the following Server, and more than 180 servers running solution modules: Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server. There are also 6 Windows NT 4.0 domain controllers.  Server purposing  Monitoring and reporting The hardware for all services resides in a  Service provisioning single data center in College Station, Texas.  Update management  Web hosting Benefits  Data hosting With the Microsoft Solution for Windows- based Hosting, Vertafore has gained the The solution modules have been designed to capabilities that it needs to run its data integrate quickly and easily into existing center more efficiently and cost-effectively. infrastructures, preserving investments while Using the Monitoring and Reporting module enabling creation of a hosting environment of the solution, Vertafore can now track “On the first day we ran that provides the flexibility and many more hardware and performance MOM, we found 33 differentiation that ISVs require. parameters than it previously could, and administrators get alerts and warnings much critical events that we The critical environment that Vertafore has sooner than they did with the old collection hadn’t even known to manage includes nearly 300 Windows- of monitoring tools. Administrators can also based server computers. The company’s resolve problems more quickly using the about—we had simply latest hosted service is a Microsoft .NET– solution’s monitoring tools—so quickly, in never monitored for connected application called AMS 360. It fact, that customers may not even know that uses the Microsoft .NET Framework, an a server had a problem. Vertafore them before.” integral component of the Windows administrators can manage security updates Chris Munoz, Vice President of Hosting operating system that provides a much more efficiently using the Update Services, Vertafore programming model and runtime for Web Management module of the solution, and services, Web applications, and smart client they can build new servers faster than ever applications. AMS 360 uses a smart client using the Server Purposing module. In fact, front end and a back-end server component the Server Purposing capabilities are so built on Web services. The hosted back-end strong that Vertafore could completely portion of the solution relies on more than rebuild its data center within hours of a 35 HP ProLiant servers running the Microsoft catastrophic event—ensuring that all Windows Server™ 2003 operating system. customers would have their data and applications available well within the time New Vertafore customers are starting on specified in their service level agreements AMS 360, but there are still thousands of (SLAs). customers that continue to make use of an older application called AMS for Windows. Detecting and Resolving Problems This hosted solution consists of a Microsoft 30 Times Faster Windows NT® Server operating system Vertafore previously monitored only some 70 version 4.0 domain with 19 active/passive conditions, gathering data using eight different consoles within the network and Chief Technology Officer at Vertafore. operations center. It could take an “We’ll know early on if a server has a unacceptably long time for an administrator problem, and we can then fix that problem to become aware of an underperforming before the server stops and the customer server. Indeed, sometimes a customer would loses access to our application. That’s key call with a question about a server before the for customer satisfaction.” monitoring tools alerted administrators to a problem. Installing Software Updates 4 Times Faster Using the Monitoring and Reporting module Vertafore administrators install an average of the solution, which makes use of of 1.5 application changes per month, as Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 well as 1.5 application deployments. They and monitors more than 9,000 conditions also average 3.33 security updates per upon deployment, Vertafore administrators month. Managing more than 6 updates per begin receiving alert messages within month for a single server computer may not seconds of a server event. Moreover, where it sound like a daunting task, but Vertafore has could have taken Vertafore administrators nearly 300 servers in its data center, and “This solution is really two hours or more to fix a detected problem managing updates had grown to be a through manual intervention, the automated significant challenge for administrators. going to help us features of MOM often fix the problem within enhance uptime to our minutes—a thirtyfold improvement over its Using the Update Management module of previous monitoring response. Vertafore now the solution, which employs Microsoft customers.” responds so quickly to a variety of conditions Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS) Dominique Laborde, Senior Vice President that customers often never know that a and Software Update Services, Vertafore has and Chief Technology Officer, Vertafore server has a problem. significantly reduced the amount of time that it takes an administrator to update “MOM helped us find issues in our network server computers. Working with eQuest, that we didn’t even know we had,” says Chris Vertafore compared the time that it took to Munoz, Vice President of Hosting Services at install updates on its servers using both its Vertafore. “We’re able to cast a much bigger traditional manual approach and the new net than we could before. In fact, on the first automated approach. The manual process of day we ran MOM, we found 33 critical events updating servers took more than 28 hours that we hadn’t even known about—we had per month; with SMS, that process takes less simply never monitored for them before.” than 7 hours per month—a 75 percent reduction in administrator time. Munoz also calculates that MOM will help Vertafore close trouble tickets much faster “Systems Management Server allows us to than it previously could, saving the company update 200 servers with no more effort than more than $16,000 per year. it takes to update a single server,” says Munoz. “This results in an estimated yearly “This solution is really going to help us savings of more than $13,000, even when enhance uptime to our customers,” says considering the licensing costs of SMS.” Dominique Laborde, Senior Vice President Building Servers At Least 7 Times that might otherwise take a back seat to Faster server building. In the past, Vertafore administrators built server computers manually. An Preparing for Catastrophe administrator would install operating system Vertafore has also discovered an additional software from a CD or from an operating benefit of the Solution. The server purposing system image built using Norton Ghost. Once module provides Vertafore with all the the operating system was installed, the capabilities it needs to rebuild its server farm administrator then had to perform many even faster than its SLAs require it to do so manual tasks to complete the build and in the event of a catastrophic event. ensure that the server was ready for production. If for some reason the College Station data center were to fail, Vertafore has promised Manually, the process of building a single its customers that their data and systems Windows Server 2003–based server could would be back online quickly. To ensure that “Systems Management take as long as 111 minutes—if installation promise, Vertafore maintains a “warm Server allows us to tasks could be performed without backup” data center in a separate location. interruption (more often, it would take an Given the rate at which its production data update 200 servers with elapsed time of between three and four center had been growing, though, Vertafore no more effort than it hours to build a single server). By moving managers found themselves wondering back and forth between machines, an whether administrators could bring the warm takes to update a single engineer could save some time and build backup data center online within the time server. This results in an two servers in 151 minutes. Over the course frame defined by the SLA. As the number of of a month, administrators routinely spent server computers in the production data estimated yearly 12 to 15 hours building new servers. center creeps past 300, rebuilding those savings of more than servers by hand in the backup data center After eQuest deployed the Server Purposing might require an unacceptably long time. $13,000.” module of the solution, which utilizes the Chris Munoz, Vice President of Hosting Automated Deployment Services (ADS) of Using the multicast purposing capabilities of Services, Vertafore Windows Server 2003, Vertafore discovered the solution, however, Vertafore has that it could build a complete server in less discovered that it could easily rebuild all than 15 minutes—7.4 times faster than its systems in its data center within the time typical manual build time. Moreover, specified by its SLA and get its customers because Vertafore can use ADS to build back up and running quickly. multiple servers in parallel, Vertafore administrators can build all the servers that Ensuring the Insurer’s Systems they need to add each month in the same With the Microsoft Solution for Windows- 14.81 minutes that it takes to build a single based Hosting, Vertafore is in a strong server. The automated capabilities free up position to ensure the ongoing cost-effective many hours of an administrator’s time each delivery of its hosted software solutions— month and enable the administrator to focus which in turn ensures the data integrity and his or her attention on value-added projects back office operations of its thousands of insurance agency customers. The Solution For More Information enables Vertafore to improve the delivery of Microsoft Windows Server System and For more information about Microsoft its service—and its profitability—on an the Communications Sector ™ products and services, call the Microsoft everyday basis. The Solution also ensures Microsoft® Windows Server System is a Sales Information Center at (800) 426- that Vertafore can meet its SLAs, even in the comprehensive, integrated, and 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft face of disaster. interoperable server infrastructure that helps Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- reduce the complexity and costs of building, 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of- deploying, connecting, and operating agile hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone business solutions. Windows Server System (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in helps service providers create new value for the United States or (905) 568-9641 in their businesses and their customers Canada. Outside the 50 United States and through the strategic use of their IT assets. Canada, please contact your local With the Windows Server operating system Microsoft subsidiary. To access as its foundation, Windows Server System information using the World Wide Web, go delivers dependable infrastructure for data to: www.microsoft.com management and analysis; enterprise integration; customer, partner, and For more information about eQuest employee portals; business process Technologies products and services, call automation; communications and (301) 924-5000 or visit the Web site at: collaboration; and core IT operations www.eqinc.com including security, deployment, and systems management. For more information about Vertafore products and services, call (860) 602- For more information about Windows Server 6000 or visit the Web site at: System, go to: www.ams-services.com http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversy stem

For more information about Microsoft solutions for the communications sector, go to: www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders

Software and Services  Technologies  Microsoft Windows Server System − Automated Deployment Services − Microsoft Windows Server 2003 − Software Update Services Standard Edition − Internet Information Services 6.0 − Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced − Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Server − Web services − Microsoft Operations Manager 2002 − Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Hardware − Microsoft Systems Management  HP ProLiant DL380, DL560, and DL580 Server 2003 server computers  Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Active Directory, Windows, the Windows logo, Windows NT, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Document published April 2005