MusicMetric

Story Details

MusicMetric helps companies in the music industry make faster, better-informed decisions by uncovering trends between musicians, releases, brands, and events. Driving the company's success is a collection of custom database and software tools, developed by the company founders over several years. At the end of 2008, MusicMetric received funding to build an IT infrastructure that could support its innovative software and facilitate business growth. Multi-threaded servers were needed to accelerate simultaneous downloads conducted by Web crawlers. Data-analysis and machine-learning algorithms required servers with sizable processors and memory. The company also needed a scalable storage architecture to support a rapidly expanding archive. In addition, MusicMetric wanted to take advantage of open-source database and virtualization technologies to create a multitiered database architecture, simplify development efforts, and minimize workstation investments.

As a startup, the company sought a cost-effective solution that was highly available. Employees evaluated numerous technologies including Sun and Dell hardware; PostgreSQL and MySQL database software; and Sun VirtualBox and Xen virtualization technologies. Ultimately, MusicMetric chose to build on Sun hardware and software technologies. Through the Sun Startup Essentials program, MusicMetric could pay 50% less than it originally estimated for the cost of hardware. "We didn't just go with Sun because of the great prices," explains Greg Mead, head of research and development at MusicMetric. "The power usage of Dell servers was 60% higher than Sun's systems. Also, through Sun Startup Essentials we'd get great feedback and support from engineers on our architecture, and we'd be able to participate in events designed to help startups like ourselves. Our engineers also had more experience with MySQL."

In February 2009, a single engineer from MusicMetric deployed the new infrastructure at a hosted datacenter, engaging Sun support for advice when needed. Two Sun Fire T1000 servers - single- and dual-processor CMT machines with six and eight cores - run the Solaris 10 Operating System, Web crawlers, and three tiers of databases. A back-end database uses a custom application to hold data collected by Web crawlers; a midtier database runs MySQL to store older data generated by data-mining applications; and a front-facing database runs MySQL to host recent data garnered by data-mining applications. Three Sun Fire X2200 M2 servers - each with two quad-core, 2.7 GHz, SMP processors and 64 GB of memory - run the Fedora Core OS as well as data-mining and data-analysis applications. One Sun Fire X2100 M2 server with the Fedora Core OS is set up as a file server to support development efforts. In addition, one Sun Storage J4200 array stores 6 TB of compressed archive data and makes use of the Solaris 10 OS and the built-in ZFS file system to provide for high availability

At the same time, company employees deployed Sun VirtualBox on one Sun Ultra 24 workstation and existing PCs so that they can quickly switch between development environments running on the Solaris 10 OS, Linux, and Windows. Employees also deployed OpenOffice.org software on workstations to support day-to-day office tasks and data sharing.

With its new solution, MusicMetric has reduced projected expenditures, maximized investments, met performance requirements, and provided for rapid scalability. "Through the Sun Startup Essentials program, we were able to buy about 50% more hardware than we expected given our budget," says Mead. The reduced power consumption of Sun servers also means that MusicMetric pays one-third of what it would have paid for hosting Dell servers. In addition, by building its IT infrastructure on highly scalable and reliable Sun technologies, MusicMetric can support enterprise-class growth. Virtualization also helps to extend investments and boost productivity. "With Sun VirtualBox, we don't have to reboot to switch between virtual environments like you need to do with other solutions," notes Mead. "And it literally takes us a minute to install a new OS."

Mead also explains that one of the great benefits of the Sun Startup Essentials program is networking: "We try to go to as many Sun events as we can. It's a really good way to meet other people dealing with similar challenges and Stewart Townsend, a Startup Essentials Manager, has introduced us to some great business leads."

In May 2009, MusicMetric purchased a second J4200 array, an additional Sun Ultra 24 workstation as well as three Sun Fire T1000 servers to support text mining operations.