IT Case Study: Gelco Information Network
Nhia Vang, Technology Architect
Gelco, a Leading Expense Tracking Firm, Looks To InfiniBand to Reduce Data Center Expenses
Travel and entertainment (T&E) is frequently the largest single indirect expense for many organizations. According to American Express, T&E expenses can account for 10% to 30% of indirect operating expenses and approximately 55% of companies still manually enter and audit every expense report.
To help companies reduce the cost associated with tracking expenses, Minneapolis-based Gelco provides expense management software and hosted services to large business and government organizations. Founded 35 years ago, the company processed approximately $11 billion in reimbursements in 1999. The company has more than 400 employees and is providing software and services for more than 1,400 corporate and government clients, including Boeing, RSA Security and the Department of Defense. For its hosted services operation, Gelco manages 9 terabytes of data to support thousands of customer transactions every day.
Nhia Vang, Gelco Information Technology Technical Architect, tests and develops IT architecture for Gelco, and is responsible for making the technology work seamlessly with demands of the customer. Vang has been challenged by the rising demand for Gelco services and making sure his data center operations scale to meet demand.
"Over the last 18 months, Gelco's storage holdings have increased from 1 to 9 terabytes," Vang said. "The storage increase has been accompanied by a huge increase in data center transactions. We need technologies that help us scale our data center operations to meet customer demand for hosted services."
Enter InfiniBand™ Architecture
Scalability and performance are two reasons why Vang is interested in point-to-point switched fabric interconnects like InfiniBand Architecture. But he is also concerned with manageability and operating costs. His data center uses multiple interconnect technologies, which complicates management and can increase costs.
"I need to get better functionality across the board," Vang explained. "Each device currently requires specific, individual care. A switched fabric interconnect like InfiniBand Architecture will enable a smooth flow and reduce points of failure while simplifying maintenance and component replacements. With InfiniBand fabric implementation, having one platform could eliminate half of the problems we have today."
Vang recently joined the InfiniBand Trade Association IT Program to review the technology and its potential benefits for improving data center scalability while reducing management costs.
"A standards-based solution like InfiniBand Architecture could make a big difference in an operation like ours," he said. "We're always looking for cross-industry solutions like InfiniBand Architecture that help increase performance while simplifying management."