Boiron heals data availability and BI pains with Quest SharePlex

Benefits

• Cost savings: Saves thousands in licensing fees by eliminating the need for Oracle EE
• High availability: Supports tight RTOs and business continuity
• Improved performance: Redirects intensive reporting and BI workloads to replicated databases, reducing the load on primary systems
• Seamless user experience: Provides replication latency as low as 30 seconds for near-real-time data access
• Unrivaled customer support: Ensures strategic success and rapid issue resolution with a hands-on support team

The Story

Boiron, the global leader in homeopathic medicines, operates in more than 50 countries with a workforce of 3,000 employees, including 2,400 in France. Their Oracle Standard Edition (SE) database infrastructure forms the backbone of their operations, supporting critical business functions. Challenges arose as they sought to meet stringent high-availability requirements, reduce reporting burdens on primary systems and manage IT costs effectively. To resolve these issues, Boiron sought an innovative yet cost-efficient solution.

Diagnosing the problem

Boiron faced significant challenges in their database operations. The IT department had received a mandate to meet a recovery time objective (RTO) of four hours or fewer for critical Oracle databases. This stringent requirement highlighted the inefficiency of traditional recovery methods, which could not guarantee such rapid recovery times.

As Boiron’s Technical Infrastructure Architect, Thierry Mara, recalled, “As we were asked for this deadline, which fell to four hours, we were forced to look for a real-time replication solution.” With growing pressure to ensure database uptime, the need for a powerful strategy became clear.

But cost constraints further compounded the team’s challenges. While Oracle Enterprise Edition offered advanced clustering capabilities, the licensing costs were deemed prohibitively expensive. “As we are in Oracle Standard Edition, we are not entitled to clustering, and upgrading would be exorbitant,” Mara explained.

On top of those obstacles, the primary database struggled under the combined load of transactional updates and intensive reporting tasks. This burden affected overall performance, making it essential that Boiron find a way to offload reporting to a secondary system.

Prescribing SharePlex®

After a thorough evaluation, Boiron selected SharePlex for its ability to address their specific needs in a cost-effective manner. The Quest team provided invaluable support throughout the decision-making process, including demonstrations, a proof of concept (POC) and technical guidance. “We were given a demo and even a small POC. This allowed us to test a simple setup and see that it worked effectively,” Mara said. “The two main criteria for our choice were compatibility with Oracle Standard Edition and a price that fit our budget.” After conducting a price study, Boiron confirmed SharePlex would deliver the highest return on investment at the lowest cost.

Administering the solution

Boiron deployed SharePlex in 2017 with six primary Oracle 19c databases and six replicated databases across Windows servers. The architecture consists of 12 SharePlex agents, each ensuring unidirectional replication from primary to secondary with minimal latency, typically under five minutes. To monitor the system, Boiron implemented Quest® Foglight®, which provided real-time insights into replication latency and issued alerts for potential issues. “This ensures the latency is less than five minutes to guarantee the user has fresh data on the replicated database,” noted Mara.

The implementation process highlighted the simplicity and reliability of SharePlex. “At the beginning of the project, you need to invest time in understanding how SharePlex works, but the documentation and support make it straightforward,” Mara said. He was also impressed with the dedication and expertise of the Quest support team. “Quest support works quite well. On the SharePlex side, there are specialists, serious ones,” he said, whom he credits with helping Boiron meet their database operational goals.

Healing effects

SharePlex delivered transformative results for Boiron, addressing each of their challenges with precision and efficiency, enabling the company to maintain high availability. With SharePlex ensuring real-time replication, Boiron met its four-hour RTO, providing a reliable failover solution that safeguards business continuity.

Reporting tasks were seamlessly offloaded to the replicated databases, reducing the load on the primary system. This not only improved overall performance but also enhanced the user experience. “This allows us to tell the user, ‘You are almost as if you were in production,’ except you’re on a copy with dedicated power for reporting,” said Mara. Users initially expressed doubts about the reliability of the replicated data, as it seemed too good to be true. “It took almost a year to convince users that the replicated database was operational and up to date. Now, they fully trust the system.”

Cost savings were another major benefit. By leveraging SharePlex with Oracle Standard Edition, Boiron avoided the significant expense of upgrading to Oracle Enterprise Edition, saving substantially on licensing fees.

SharePlex has consistently delivered on its promises, adapting to Boiron’s changing needs and diverse environment. “Years later, SharePlex is still sustainable and evolving,” Mara said.

A strong remedy

SharePlex has proven to be an indispensable solution for Boiron. Beyond addressing their immediate challenges, it has introduced new possibilities for optimizing database operations. “Without SharePlex, we encounter performance problems very quickly. It’s an essential element in the proper functioning of Boiron,” Mara said. He also highlighted the product’s flexibility, stating, “Once it’s in place, you can even find other use cases.”

Today, Boiron achieves enterprise-level database performance and reliability without incurring the high costs of database upgrades. With SharePlex, Boiron can focus on its core mission – delivering homeopathic medicines worldwide.

As Mara concluded, “SharePlex has been a gamechanger for Boiron. It’s allowed us to meet stringent availability requirements, offload reporting workloads and stay within our budget. Over seven years, it has proven to be a reliable and cost-effective solution that adapts to our evolving needs.”