Yuntaa

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Yuntaa has been called “the Swiss Army knife” of the Web 2.0 world because it provides almost every Web 2.0 feature available, coupled with an advanced online storage and backup solution. Yuntaa — Spanish slang for “alternative” — currently serves a worldwide user base, with a strong focus on the European markets and a growing business in South America and Asia. Yuntaa is a feature-rich online application and, as a result, offers numerous services to its users, both interactively and behind the scenes. One such feature is virtual storage space for files. Users not only get access to personalized Web space, they can also manage and share their files online with other Internet users. To support this unique service, Yuntaa uses the Oracle Database 11g to store both content and metadata, giving it more stability, security, and integrity. The company expects to serve 1 million users by the end of 2008 and that number is projected to grow to between 2 and 3 million users in 2009.

The world of Web 2.0 is a vast territory, and the type of service provided to the end user has a tremendous effect on the hardware and software solutions needed. According to Yuntaa Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Andy Barrett, the company is breaking the mold and doing things differently from its competitors. “Most store their content on a traditional file server. We use the Oracle database, not only to store the metadata (the ‘data about data’ required for effective data management), but actually to store the content inside of the database — there is no traditional file system except for Oracle ASM, which is only accessible from the database kernel. We haven’t come across anyone else who is taking this approach,” Barrett says.

Many companies also opt for white-box hardware and unsupported software to get started quickly while containing costs. Yuntaa did the same when it was founded in 2006. However, Barrett and his team then began building its infrastructure based on a combination of Fujitsu Siemens Computers, and EMC and Oracle technologies and services. The project ended abruptly in the third quarter of 2007, when Barrett found that a more affordable and proven technology was necessary. “With Yuntaa making the transition from a startup company to a professional business, it became critical to find the right solution to help us grow over the coming years,” Barrett says. “Making the correct long-term decisions meant the difference between success and failure.”

As CTO, Barrett heads a 20-person team of programmers and is responsible for the core infrastructure of the business, including networking, firewalls, Oracle database administration, and server/storage management. “Yuntaa relies immensely on the Oracle database to run the business, and there is no better hardware to run it on than Sun Microsystems,” Barrett says. “We really went against the grain by choosing Oracle and Sun, but we proved the combination is more scalable and reliable than the typical recipe of commodity hardware and open-source software. We also proved that they are affordable.”

The implementation and realization of these goals relied heavily on the partnership between Sun, Yuntaa, and Axio Systems, a Sun Certified Partner in Belgium. Axio Systems was able to translate the complex business requirements of Yuntaa into a cost-effective solution based on Sun technology. “Perhaps the most important of many advantages that Axio Systems brings to our business is its desire to be a long-term partner. It wasn’t just about making a sale; we truly believe that Axio wanted to feel like our success was its success too,” Barrett says.

Axio Systems was the single point of contact for the complete solution. It managed negotiations with various Sun departments and tied together all the various software and hardware vendors Yuntaa uses, such as Oracle and Cisco. Under Axio’s management, the switchover to the Sun-based systems was done in the course of one day. “We couldn’t afford to have the system down for longer than a day because our business relies on being up, available, and operational. Axio and Sun were able to handle these heavy time constraints,” Barrett says.

In a critical decision, Yuntaa chose to run its Web server software on five Sun Blade X6250 server modules deployed in a Sun Blade 6000 chassis. The solution provides enterprise computing power with near-unlimited growth potential. “We chose the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System because it delivers outstanding value and still enables us to grow in line with our business, especially growth in end users. Whatever the future holds, our hardware is ready for it,” Barrett says.

Two of the Sun Blade X6250 server modules run Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, two run Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, and one is a spare. This configuration was especially appealing to Barrett and his team. “The combination of Sun and Microsoft technology is perfect for our business. Because we can run different flavors of operating system on a single chassis, Sun Blade hardware offers low total cost of ownership and rapid return on investment.”

The Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000 server with SPARC64VI technology was chosen to power the Oracle database. Says Barrett, “The technology behind the SPARC64VI is amazing. We knew that the most successful businesses on the planet run their Oracle databases on Sun, so we had no doubt that the SPARC64VI CPU and the Solaris 10 Operating System would deliver the very best performance and reliability. And the price tag came in well under budget. A lot of people think Sun hardware is too expensive. Nothing could be farther from the truth.”

As a ground-breaking Web 2.0 business, Yuntaa cannot afford to let its customers down by losing or mishandling electronic files. As Barrett says, “Our end users must have complete confidence in our storage infrastructure; otherwise they simply won't use us to look after and back up prized personal content.” For this reason, the company selected the Sun StorageTek 6140 array combining high-speed fibre channel disks with high-density SATA disks. “We owe it to our customers to store their data on only the best hardware. There’s nothing second-best or compromised with Yuntaa, and our Sun storage solution proves that rule.”

Furthermore, the StorageTek SL500 modular library system provides an added layer of data protection. “Our business is electronic data. We have to maintain zero data loss, 100% data integrity, 100% data reliability, and 100% performance,” Barrett says. “What really struck us about our Sun architecture is that it enables us to get the very best performance from best-of-breed vendors including Oracle and Microsoft. Sun also gets us right on target to achieve our technology and business goals. Yuntaa just can’t be the alternative option; it has to be the best.”