deRemate.com Cuts Costs and Scales Online Business with Red Hat and JBoss

Industry: Online retail

Geography: Argentina & Chile

Opportunity: deRemate.com wanted to create a portal through which any person with an email account could transfer money. The portal would enable the payment of purchases generally completed through the company’s transactional sites in several countries including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. The service was previously provided to deRemate.com by a third party, but the company looked to discover a solution that allowed the action to take place in-house and would eliminate outsourcing.

SOLUTION:
Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, JBoss Application Server
Hardware: Dell PowerEdge 2950, 6850 and 1950

BENEFITS:
With Red Hat and JBoss solutions, deRemate.com experienced significant initial cost savings, while still receiving the reliability of solutions backed by Red Hat and a long presence in the market.
With an easy implementation and support from Red Hat, the company was able to allocate smaller resources to the large project, using only 10-15 employees throughout the implementation.
deRemate.com now enjoys a newly focused business that has increased future potential and scalability.

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BACKGROUND
deRemate.com is a leading online trade community with presence in Argentina, Chile, Columbia, and Mexico. In June 2007 deRemate.com introduced DePagos.com, a payment platform that allows any user, individual, or company to receive or send online payments in a safe, fast, and secure way — only using an email address. This payment solution is available in Argentina and will soon be online in Chile.

OPPORTUNITY
deRemate.com wanted to create a portal through which any person with an email account could transfer money. The portal would enable the payment of purchases generally completed through the company’s transactional sites in several countries, including Argentina, Chile, Columbia, and Mexico. The service was previously provided to deRemate.com by a third party, but the company looked to discover a solution that allowed the action to take place in-house and would eliminate outsourcing.

SOLUTION
In looking for a cost-effective and reliable solution, deRemate.com researched a number of options. The company looked into choosing the solutions of a well-known supplier, but ultimately selected Red Hat for its flexible, customizable, and cost-efficient open source solutions. The company migrated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and the JBoss Application Server, both backed by Red Hat support, on Dell PowerEdge hardware.

“In our initial research, we looked into a company that is known widely around the world, but determined that its solutions were too expensive. We also contacted a company that competes with JBoss in price, but lacked good references in terms of stability and troubleshooting,” said Alfredo Yung, CTO at deRemate.com. “We are happy with our decision to implement Red Hat and JBoss solutions because we are certain that we’ll have the best, most cost-effective solution available.”

“A big factor in selecting to work with Red Hat and JBoss was the transparency inherit in the available solutions,” said Yung. “I have been dealing with technology for over 14 years – from basic support to the application currently in use – and have always operated with black boxes. With black boxes, you buy a solution from a vendor and wait for it to do the job. When you are relying on the tool and the vendor support, but you have no idea how to enhance the tool, there is no transparency. The transparency available with JBoss was priceless as it allowed us to get inside and see what was actually happening.”

deRemate.com’s Red Hat and JBoss implementation presented a brand-new architecture for its transactional sites. The solution, currently only operational in Argentina, is expected to be rolled out in the additional three countries where deRemate.com operates. In Chile, the company is defining regulatory issues before full implementation. In Columbia and Mexico, analysis is still underway to determine exact implementation techniques, but a database migration project to Red Hat and JBoss solutions is underway.

BENEFITS
Since implementing its new solutions, deRemate.com has realized significant initial cost savings. “Our decision was mainly based on the price-performance curve relating to open source solutions. Initial costs, in particular, are extremely lower,” said Yung. “We’re dealing with products with a long presence in the market, with a large community of developers backing them up, and with the support of major companies like Red Hat and JBoss.”

deRemate.com also saved in terms of resources as Red Hat and JBoss solutions were implemented. The company was able to build its new infrastructure using only the resources of about 10-15 people including the development, operations, and testing teams. “We didn’t encounter any major learning issues during our implementation and everything was solved during our training period,” said Yung. “We consulted Red Hat’s support services two or three times and experienced a highly satisfactory response.”

The company’s goal was to bring outsourcing to an end and build a strategic point-to-point business. With Red Hat and JBoss solutions, deRemate.com’s collection of online transactions – the main focus of the company’s business – was considerably improved. “Our experience with our new solution and support has been excellent. Anyone buying a product from a seller through deRemate.com and using Depagos.com as the method of payment, has a better chance of collecting the fees owed than with other methods of payment,” said Yung. “Our new solution has a much larger potential than we’re even using so far. We will later see what other business opportunities arise from our new platform and how our business will evolve as a result.”