CBS Interactive: High density in an always-on environment

Customer Success Stories

The world's largest online content network was quickly running out of data center space and required a high-density, scalable solution. See how Iron Mountain helped.

June 25, 20268 min read

Iron Mountain Data Centers CBS Interactive case study

Industry:

Internet Broadcasting

Challenge:

Improve density and scale with 100% SLA

Solution:

Iron Mountain Data Centers high-density colocation

Value:

Cost-effective cooling and power for lower energy consumption
Reduced risk of natural disasters, availability of economical power, and improved energy utilization
High-availability systems supporting greater density.

Superior infrastructure, experience and location

CBS Interactive is the world's largest online content network, with leading brands featuring news, sports, entertainment, technology and business information. With hundreds of millions of unique visitors from around the world each month, the network was quickly running out of space and required a high-density, scalable data center solution. This global top 10 Web property not only required a partner that could quickly scale, they also required 100% Service Level Agreement while maximizing energy and operational efficiencies.

"Based on the event or breaking news, the traffic on CBS Interactive properties can peak in aggregate of 15 to 18 GB per second," said Stephen Comstock, Senior Director of IT Operations at CBS Interactive. "In searching for a new colocation provider, density was one of our top criterions to help support our customer-facing applications."

CBS Interactive selected Iron Mountain on the basis of enterprise-class physical infrastructure, deep operational experience, and a Phoenix location with its reduced risk of natural disasters, availability of economical power, and improved energy utilization. "When comparing Iron Mountain's cost with a data center build out," said Comstock, "we could not build a data center of the same class, efficiency and reliability."

By utilizing Iron Mountain's core services, we are allowed to focus on our customers and our core competencies.

Stephen Comstock, Senior Director, IT Operations, CBS Interactive

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High density in an always-on environment

CBS Interactive selected Iron Mountain's high-density colocation solution designed to support the world's largest media and content distributors. Engineered with electrical and mechanical systems that provide top-level availability, the data center's technologies support these high densities in an always-on environment.

While these resources are often not available within a company, Iron Mountain provides the staff, knowledge and experience required to operate an always-on data center. And for businesses looking for assurance that their IT environment is always-on, Iron Mountain offers a 100% uptime SLA.

With CBS Interactive significantly growing on the storage and server front, economization was an important factor. "In our previous location, the primary challenge wasn't physical space," Comstock said. "The issue was providing enough cooling and power in a cost-effective manner. Iron Mountain's controlled hot and cold aisle directly translates into lower power costs. We've benefitted from their forward-looking ability to create the most efficient data centers with the highest density."

CBS Interactive was able to reduce its previous colocation costs by about two-thirds, while benefiting from a state-of-the-art facility. Built in an incredibly reliable location with abundant energy, the energy-efficient data center uses the latest technologies and systems to enhance reliability. Variable frequency drives, ultrasonic humidification, LED lighting and sealed server racks allow Iron Mountain to efficiently remove heat from the data center and reduce energy consumption.

The density of digital energy delivered by Iron Mountain was beyond CBS Interactive's expectations. "Their colocation services have become a critical component of our infrastructure. There's essentially no combination of equipment that can't be cooled within that space," said Comstock.

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From a network perspective, Iron Mountain is a carrier-neutral facility. This allows us the flexibility to improve our overall spend and service by expanding our carrier choices. This flexibility has made a pretty dramatic impact to our total infrastructure costs.

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