OnRamp Access Turns to Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Flexibility, Cost Savings and Reliability

Industry: Data Center Services, Internet Operations

Geography: Austin, Texas

Opportunity: Implement a cost-effective and reliable standard Linux-based platform with the ability to support varied architectures

Migration Path: FreeBSD to Red Hat Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Hardware: HP ProLiant DL 100, 300, 500 servers

Benefits: Experienced hardware flexibility, cost savings, reliable support, and extended lifecycle of software

Background
Founded in Austin, Texas, OnRamp Access has been providing all of the services necessary to build, deploy, and manage Internet Operations since its inception in 1994. As an Internet Operations company with 25 employees, OnRamp provides its 10,000 customers with a suite of Data Center services, including Colocation, Managed Services, Web Design/Development, and Advanced Internet Solutions, including web and email hosting.

Opportunity
In the late 1990s, OnRamp was utilizing FreeBSD, a free, Unix-like operating system, when the company recognized a need for a standardized platform that could offer reliable support. The company explored Sun Solaris, but realized that the solution demanded high-end hardware requirements. The Internet Operations company, desiring a flexible solution, then explored generic Linux flavors, including Red Hat solutions.

Solution
Red Hat’s reputation for reliable support, long-term software lifecycles, and commitment to the open source community encouraged OnRamp to explore Red Hat solutions carefully. After successful testing, OnRamp implemented Red Hat Linux 6 in 1998 and has updated with each new version of Red Hat’s open source operating system. Currently, it deploys Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Today, when OnRamp customers are in need of a solution, the Internet Operations company strongly encourages the use of Red Hat solutions. “Whenever we recommend a Red Hat solution on a managed server product, we strongly encourage the use of licensed Red Hat Enterprise solutions because the lifecycle that Red Hat Enterprise Linux maintains,” said Don West, Senior Network Engineer at OnRamp Access. “OnRamp and our customers can rely on the fact that once we deploy a Red Hat platform and it will be a supported operating system for years.”

Benefits
After nearly ten years of utilizing Red Hat solutions, OnRamp has enjoyed a wide array of benefits. Red Hat’s hardware and software flexibility has allowed OnRamp to deploy applications and update and switch hardware when necessary without issues. Additionally, OnRamp has enjoyed cost savings, reliable long-term software lifecycles, and support. “The ability to call upon Red Hat support, should it ever be needed, is a great safety net for us. Many other alternative software solutions come without the reliable support provided for Red Hat Enterprise Linux,” said West.

For the future, OnRamp plans to update its internal applications, including platforms like its mail server, and intends to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the platform for its new solution. It is additionally exploring Red Hat’s high-availability solutions that incorporate clustering across multiple nodes in order to assure zero downtime. Though there is not an internal demand for the technology, OnRamp also has plans to explore virtualization technology for its customers.