Oxford University Press Improves SAP Application Performance by Three Times With Violin Memory

LONDON--(Marketwired - May 14, 2013) - Violin Memory, Inc., provider of memory-based storage systems, has helped Oxford University Press (OUP) to improve its SAP IPM application performance by three times -- cutting month end processing by two and a half days, and reducing average dialog response time -- the time it takes from the first dialog request to the presentation of the final data -- by 30 percent.

OUP, a department of the University of Oxford, is the world's largest university press, publishing thousands of titles a year in both print and digital formats for wide-ranging audiences in more than 40 languages. Its SAP application runs the intellectual property rights management system for a major part of the organization, which is used to calculate royalties for its authors.

Nightly and monthly batch processing runs frequently overran, delaying other mission-critical processes. Working with SCC, Europe's largest independent IT group and solutions partner, the publisher chose the Violin Memory 6212 Flash Memory Array, an all-silicon shared storage system with industry-leading performance (up to 1 million IOPS) and ultra-low latency. The deployment of the array has accelerated application performance and key business processes, for example:

• Processing of nightly sales loads has been cut by over 6 hours to as little as 50 minutes.
• Key preparation for month end has dropped from 56 hours to 14.5 hours.
• The month-end billing run is largely finished in 12.5 hours, as opposed to 36.5 hours the previously.
• Average dialog response time -- the time it takes from the first dialog request to the presentation of the final data -- was reduced by 30 percent.

Mark Harwood, SAP Lifecycle for OUP, said, "Most importantly we've removed the daily impact and the pressing risk to our month end close caused by the ever-lengthening batch processing times required as the data-set grew." He added, "The decision to choose Violin Memory was made much easier by the professional approach shown by their team throughout our engagement, which has helped us to better understand all-flash memory arrays, an area of technology that is new to us."

Mick Bradley, Vice President Technology Services and Solutions EMEA, said, "Oxford University Press is another great example of how choosing the right storage solution can help a business run more smoothly. The Violin Memory Array has accelerated OUP's SAP application by an amazing 300 percent."

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About Violin Memory, Inc.
Violin Memory is pioneering a new class of high-performance flash-based storage systems that are designed to bring storage performance in-line with high-speed applications, servers and networks. Violin Flash Memory Arrays are specifically designed at each level of the system architecture starting with memory and optimized through the array to leverage the inherent capabilities of flash memory and meet the sustained high-performance requirements of business critical applications, virtualized environments and Big Data solutions in enterprise data centers. Specifically designed for sustained performance with high reliability, Violin Flash Memory Arrays can scale to hundreds of terabytes and millions of IOPS with low, predictable latency. Founded in 2005, Violin Memory is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information about Violin Memory products, visit www.vmem.com.

About Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of furthering excellence in scholarship, education, and research by publishing worldwide. It employs more than 6,000 people and is the world's largest university press with the widest global presence in more than 50 countries. It has an incredibly diverse publishing programme covering an extremely broad academic and education spectrum publishing in 100 countries, more than 40 languages, and in a variety of print and digital formats.