DeAGOSTINI Japan, which publishes partworks (*1) serial publications such as biweekly "X-file DVD Collection",weekly "Building Warship Yamato" and biweekly "World Insects Data Book". They migrated their "Subscription Management System" that manages orders from customers from environment of 32bit Windows system to MIRACLE LINUX 64bit version and Oracle10g RAC supporting EM64T. By this renewal, Oracle Database's performance dramatically is improved as well as secured scalability and reliability for the future.

(*1: Partworks is a type of studying method providing information step by step in the form of weekly and biweekly to easily study certain area's full-scale knowledge or how-to in a reasonable way.)

* Windows 2000 Professional for clients. Business application was developed by .Net.

Implement Oracle10g RAC to enhance existing system's availability

To respond to the fast-growing sales increase and to enhance customer services, it was necessary for DeAGOSTINI to strengthen scalability as well as reliability of their "Subscription Management System". This system manages subscriber's complete information (such as magazine, term, destination, and payment method).
The environment at this moment consisted of Oracle Database (single node) and Windows. To expand the system while keeping this environment, implementation of Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters) was examined. At the beginning, system renewal was considered based on Windows as DeAGOSTINI Group was adopting Windows worldwide.

Mr. Ishikawa, DeAGOSTINI Japan

Decided migration to Linux expecting reduction of TCO and reliability
Adopted MIRACLE LINUX emphasizing experience of Oracle RAC implementation and their consulting capability

ATX, the system builder for DeAGOSTINI advised, "To build Oracle RAC, UNIX-based operating system is much more reliable than Windows." But, "UNIX is expensive and we had no experience of implementation" said Mr.Ishikawa, DeAGOSTINI Japan. After considerable discussion, DeAGOSTINI Japan decided to build the system based on Linux as "Implementation cost of Linux will be lower than Windows while reliability level is as high as UNIX" plus ,"Oracle related products on Linux can be operated and managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g".

When it came to operating system selection, Red Hat was of course one of the candidates, but the decisive points such as the advantage that engineers are based in Japan and rich accomplishments of implementing Oracle RAC and consulting capability, eventually MIRACLE LINUX was adopted.

Enabling Oracle Database's fivefold performance by 64bit
Ensuring future scalability and reliability

For the future load increase, renewal system's operating system and database were built based on 64bit. This was because Oracle Database's performance verification by MIRACLE LINUX resulted in fivefold capability in index search. (See reference Graph 1)

The cost of enabling 64bit was to expand memories but comparing to server's additional cost we can say ROI was excellent. In addition, since MIRACLE LINUX V3.0 for x86-64 contains a 32bit compatible mode, the migration was easily done ensuring "the operation of the existing application under the 64bit environment."

• Built fault tolerant database by implementing Oracle10g RAC.
• Clustering enabled Oracle Database's online update.
• 64bit enabled enhancement of system's capability as well as readiness for the future load increase.

As you can see from the cost comparison, there is a price gap of approximately 1.32 million yen just for the operating system license. In addition, Client Access License (CAL) fee is necessary per client at Windows system. This price competitiveness is one of the biggest advantages of Linux.

When built by Windows-Base: (based on regular price)

• Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition (719,000JPY *2) x 2 servers = 1,438,000JPY
• Client Access License (CAL): 5,200JPY x client numbers
  *2: estimated retail price

When built by MIRACLE LINUX-Base:

• MIRACLE LINUX V3.0 for x86-64 (60,000JPY) x 2 servers = 120,000JPY
• Client license: not required

"DeAGOSTINI", a global company headquartered in Italy, has a formidable competitiveness in the partworks market with a share of more than 50% worldwide. DeAGOSTINI entered into Japanese market in 1988. Style of the partworks has become broadly recognized by "The Great Composer" (1992) that enclosed music CDs and "ENGLISH FOR YOU" (1993) that enclosed language learning cassette tapes. Japanese company, "DeAGOSTINI Japan" was established in 1995 and steadily continued increasing their fans. In 2005, currently there are lineups of more than 70 titles and the first issue of "X-File DVD Collection" sold 270,000 as well as "Sonanda!(Gk: Eureka! = I have found it!)" sold 700,000. "Building Battleship YAMATO" which was first issued in September has a wide range of subscribers. It is a craft magazine series that you build 1:250 Scale accurate model of battleship YAMATO with the kit enclosed in every issue.