White Papers

• Virtualization
• Server Virtualization and Cloud Computing: Four Hidden Impacts on Uptime and Availability (PDF, 188K)
• Cloud computing allows companies to use IT resources as a service, taking advantage of shared applications, processing and storage managed within the cloud -- either inside a private cloud at an internal data center, or in an external cloud at a service provider. Greater robustness of the virtualized servers supporting this new IT model will ensure a resilient cloud infrastructure capable of delivering “on-demand” access to users.
• Seven Virtues of Virtualization: Avoiding Deadly Mistakes that Doom Business-Critical Service Management (PDF 83K)
• Disaster recovery and business continuity top the list of server virtualization drivers. And, the stakes are even higher when you virtualize business-critical IT services. Explore the role that proper project planning and management play in keeping these initiatives on track.
• Fault Tolerance in a Virtual World (PDF 405K)
• The Criticality Quotient of x86 servers and applications directly correlates to the number of business processes, users and applications dependent on virtual machines and infrastructure. This white paper examines five typical use cases for virtualization, answering why, where and how fault-tolerance can help businesses reduce risk.
• Managed Services
• What to Look for in Mission-Critical Managed IT Services (PDF, 205K)
• What's your exposure to losing business capability? Use this paper as your field guide to identify key characteristics that set critical managed IT services apart from even highly-capable general-purpose offerings.
• Banking
• Payments Risk and Fraud Management: The New World Order (PDF, 379K)
• In this white paper, we assess the current environment in payments risk and fraud management and discuss the business challenges that are leading companies to consider more proactive measures to combat fraud.
• Future Directions in Building Customer Loyalty: Creating a Rewarding Customer Experience (PDF, 235K)
• The future loyalty battlefield will be about the customer experience: how you treat your customers at every point of interaction with them — this white paper examines the requirements for success in this new world order of loyalty, and identifies critical action steps required to realize this new vision for loyalty and rewards.
• Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA): Realities, Challenges, and Opportunities (PDF, 313K)
• So what needs to be done? Now is the time to review and develop your response to the challenges and opportunities offered by SEPA.
  
• Healthcare
• Best Practices for Server Virtualization in Mission-Critical Healthcare IT (PDF, 481K)
  
• This paper provides an introduction to server virtualization for hospitals and healthcare delivery organizations. It also offers best practices you can use to benefit from virtualization, while avoiding missteps that could affect the availability and performance of mission-critical healthcare IT.
• Manufacturing
• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 on Stratus ftServer Systems for SAP NetWeaver Environments (PDF, 712 K)
• Stratus Technologies, an SAP global technology partner, provides a radically simple approach to continuous availability for SAP NetWeaver® infrastructure. Stratus® fault-tolerant ftServer® systems running Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 database software, offer unmatched platform availability and simplicity of operation. These attributes - combined with low acquisition and operational costs - make this the ideal solution for critical database applications. The ftServer/SQL Server advantage is especially apparent when compared against Oracle high-availability solutions.
• Server Virtualization: Do's and Don'ts for Mission-Critical Manufacturing Systems (PDF, 345 K)
• Discover best practices you can use to benefit from server virtualization today. Avoid mistakes that could affect the availability and performance of your mission-critical manufacturing IT solutions.
• Manufacturing IT Infrastructure — Ready or Not for MES? (PDF, 87K)
• Learn why continuous-availability systems are key elements to long-term success with manufacturing execution systems (MES).

Position Papers

• IT Availability
• Five Ways to Help Your Business Survive The Economic Downturn (PDF, 180K)
• There's never been a better time to enhance IT operations with technologies that can help you navigate the current economic downturn and emerge in a stronger position to innovate and grow. This paper explores five immediate, affordable steps you can take to reduce IT costs and improve profitability.
• Closing the IT Availability Gap: New Options for Traditional and Virtualized IT Environments (PDF, 369K)
• An easy-to-use, affordable high-availability and virtualization solution that supports the business-critical needs of organizations using standard x86 servers, Stratus Avance™ software closes the availability gap for small-to-medium businesses and larger enterprises with distribute/remote Windows and Linux computing environments
  
  
• Banking
• Real-time, All the Time Fraud Risk Management from Alaric and Stratus (PDF,380K)
• Traditionally, fraud-detection systems have been just that, systems that can detect fraud after the event. The new generation of anti-fraud systems from Alaric and Stratus work in real time — the same pace as the payments systems they are trying to protect.
  
  
• Healthcare
• Achieving "Meaningful Use" from Your Electronic Health Records Investments (PDF, 811K)
• The pace of Electronic Health Records (EHR) adoption is accelerating, spurred by the $20 billion of incentives available as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) for “meaningful use” of EHR.. This paper explains how "meaningful use" will likely be determined, which IT expenditures are eligible for incentives and identifies software and hardware solutions that are equipped to ensure EHR uptime.
• Electronic Health Records That Make the Grade — 24/7 Availability (PDF, 248K)
• The economic stimulus package promises to jump-start wide-spread adoption of electronic medical records. What are the risks when clinicians can't access EHRs? How far reaching are the consequences when data is lost or compromised? Explore the critical role of EHRs and learn how to enable resilient systems that deliver maximum uptime — automatically.
• 24/7 Uptime for Electronic Health Records: Microsoft Windows-based EHRs and Stratus Medical-Grade Servers (PDF, 167K)
• Organizations implementing Windows-based Electronic Health Records need to pay the same close attention to the availability of their underlying IT infrastructure that they give to the selection of their EHR software. This paper introduces IT solutions with built-in 24/7 uptime protection that caregivers and patients can depend on.
  
• Stratus Medical Grade Servers (PDF, 675K)
• This paper presents an overview of how a Medical Grade solution can guarantee more than five nines—99.999%—of uptime for critical healthcare applications. You'll see how continuous availability alleviates the impact of IT downtime and simplifies ongoing maintenance and support in healthcare organizations like yours.
  
• Manufacturing
  
• VMware vSphere and Stratus Servers: a Manufacturing Industry Guide (PDF, 169K)
• With VMware vSphere, the most widely deployed virtualization software suite, and Stratus ftServer systems, the premier Continuous Availability servers, manufacturers are gaining new options for managing uptime and complexity of MES and other mission-critical applications across their lifecycles.
  
  
• Maximize Availability and Performance, and Tame Complexity of Manufacturing and Utilities IT Infrastructures
  (PDF 371K)
• The complexity of information technology at manufacturing and utilities plants is increasing in response to global challenges. The Stratus ftServer family and our Continuous Availability Lifecycle Management (CALM™) Services ease the technology skills crunch at the plant with designs that inherently promote the uptime, performance and integrity of IT-driven business processes.
  
  
• Continuous Availability for SAP Perfect Plant Environments (PDF,349K)
• SAP's Perfect Plant initiative brings together best-of-breed solution partners — creating a technology ecosystem that delivers the functionality, integration, data synchronization, and certified platforms that enable companies to optimize their performance. This paper describes Stratus infrastructure solutions and best practices for deploying an SAP Perfect Plant.
  
  
• Continuous Availability for Power Plant Automation: Dr. Rainer M. Speh, Siemens AG
• Siemens Power Generation's SPPA-T3000 web-based Power Plant I&C solution is setting a new benchmark in controls. Gain insight into its advanced technologies and architectural design which incorporates Stratus fault-tolerant ftServer systems.
  
  
• Public Sector
• Ensure the Availability of IT Solutions in Mission-Critical Government Locations (PDF, 118k)
• Affordable fault-tolerant servers offer government institutions at all levels important advantages that help them meet specific IT objectives, improve operational efficiency and information sharing - while maintaining the highest levels of data integrity and security.
  
  
• Products
  • Server Technologies
    • SQL Server 2008 on ftServer Systems (PDF 713K)
    • Stratus® fault-tolerant ftServer® systems running Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 database software, offer unmatched platform availability and simplicity of operation. These attributes — combined with low acquisition and operational costs — make this the ideal solution for critical distributed and mid-sized database applications.
      
    • Ensure Mission-Critical Service Levels in VMware vSphere Environments (PDF 208K)
    • Continuous, high or "on -demand" availability — the choice is yours. The coupling of two industry-leading technologies — VMware vSphere and Stratus ftServer systems — gives IT managers a flexible, robust solution that delivers mission-critical SLAs along with the full benefits of virtualization.
      
    • Achieve Continuous Availability for Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 (PDF 268K)
    • Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 simplifies deployment, operation and IT integration for high-performance computing at a price point that allows smaller companies and individual departments to successfully deploy HPC applications. Stratus ftServer systems, with automatic continuous uptime, are the easiest and most effective way to protect critical HPC Server components — the head node, broker node and file node — from failure.
      
    • Stratus Continuous Processing Technology for Microsoft Windows Environments (PDF, 740K)
    • Continuous Processing technology has evolved with the Stratus ftServer family. Fundamentals behind the Continuous Processing design — lockstep technology, failsafe software, and the ActiveService™ architecture — are explained in detail.
      
    • Stratus Continuous Processing Technology for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Environments (PDF, 288K)
    • Continuous Processing technology has evolved with the Stratus ftServer family. Fundamentals behind the Continuous Processing design — lockstep technology, failsafe software, and the ActiveService™ architecture — are explained in detail.
      
    • Writing Drivers for Reliability (PDF, 129K)
    • This paper provides guidelines for writing drivers to ensure that the system keeps running during hardware failures and online configuration changes. (for Microsoft Windows OSs)
      
  • Service Technologies
    • Stratus ActiveService™ Architecture: Remote Access to Mission-critical Support, 24/7   (PDF 858K)
    • Get an in-depth overview of the downtime-preventing features and benefits of the Stratus ActiveService Architecture.