Funda
A platform as a product
Someone who wishes to buy or rent a house mostly visits Funda. This person will probably not realise how Funda makes sure that houses are found quickly and easily and how homes are properly visualised. The functionalities on the platform are the most normal thing in the world for the user, but there are lots of stuff needed to make all of this possible.
A large development team of about 45 developers is active behind the scenes. This team is divided into multiple teams and specialties. For instance, the search function, to enable the user what he/she is looking for can also be found.
Another example is a most pleasant and complete display of information on houses, with photos, plans, videos, and many more. Also, a good experience with Funda via the Android and iOS app is essential.
The challenge
However, the throughput speed in developing new functionalities was found to be too low. A SAN environment, a Storage Area Network Infrastructure, was used. Various development teams jointly used the storage capacity of a SAN. This SAN environment was slow, had a lot of downtime and therefore was expensive to manage.
A broader relationship with IT creation
Funda faced a challenge and decided to expand the existing collaboration with IT creation. John Verburg, Senior Network Engineer / Manager System and Application Management of Funda, explains: “For years, we have been working with IT creation for our production environment and our desk hardware supplies. Incorporating our SAN environment into IT creation was just a logical step. They think along with us, have the know-how and give honest advice. Even on matters that are outside the scope of their own service package. ”
The delivered solution
To greatly increase the throughput for developers, a Dell EMC Compellent environment has been set up, which is a full environment of servers, switches and storage. A full flash Compellent was chosen for this, precisely because the speed was of the utmost importance. Since Funda has to deal with a lot of data, and each team works more or less with the same data. After IT creation’s advice, we chose a larger number of terabytes than previously estimated. “Now we have growth capacity and we can move forward with this solution for at least four years”, Verburg said.
Positive results
“Constant renewal of the platform is crucial for Funda to keep ahead,” he continues. “Being able to quickly develop, test and make additional functionalities available for the user helps in this.”