Case Study

ISVs: The Critical Role of Disaster Recovery and the Dbvisit Advantage

CoQliQo, is a French Independent Software Vendor (ISV) specializing in solutions for mail-order and retail businesses. Gold Standard Disaster Recovery (DR) was essential for CoQliQo due to the critical nature of their ERP systems, which process thousands of orders daily. Previously reliant on external backups and hosting services, CoQliQo faced downtime and recovery speed challenges, prompting the need for a more reliable, internally managed DR solution.

The situation

CoQliQo, an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) based in France, provides comprehensive solutions for mail order and retail businesses. As an ISV, CoQliQo relies heavily on its IT infrastructure to manage critical operations such as order processing, logistics, and customer management. Given the high volume of transactions and the critical nature of its ERP systems, ensuring business continuity through an effective disaster recovery (DR) strategy is essential for maintaining client trust and operational integrity.

CoQliQo journey began in 2003 with a focus on mail order systems. The company expanded into the retail sector by acquiring Dotsoft in 2018. This integration culminated in the formation of CoQliQo in 2021. Today, the company employs around 50 people across two sites in Lille and Lyon, with a turnover of approximately 5.4 million euros.

The Importance of DR for ISVs

For ISVs like CoQliQo, disaster recovery is not just a technical necessity but a business imperative. ISVs provide software solutions that clients depend on for their day-to-day operations. Any interruption in service can lead to significant client dissatisfaction, compliance/regulatory challenges, financial loss, and damage to the ISV’s reputation. Effective DR strategies ensure that:

Before implementing Dbvisit StandbyMP, CoQliQo faced significant challenges. Their ERP system for mail orders, built on an Oracle database, is critical to their operations. Orders are processed every few seconds, so any downtime could result in substantial financial losses and service disruptions.

Previously, CoQliQo relied on backups and hosting services. However, this setup was not managed internally, leaving CoQliQo vulnerable to extended downtimes and slow recovery processes. The critical need was for a more robust, internally managed DR solution to ensure rapid recovery and minimal data loss.

“Disaster Recovery (DR) is critical for coQliQo because, with mail order transactions, you record orders every minute. So it's really critical when you're keying about 5,000 or 10,000 orders per day if the system goes down for one or two days. During that time, you can lose a lot of information and money. Not to mention the damage to your reputation and the customer experience.”

To satisfy their requirement, CoQliQo began to evaluate third-party disaster recovery solutions that could be effectively integrated into their overall offering.

Solution:

Efficient Data Replication with Dbvisit StandbyMP: StandbyMP ensures continuous data replication from the primary database to the standby database, minimizing data loss in case of a disaster.
Quick Failover and Recovery with Dbvisit StandbyMP: The solution provides rapid failover capabilities, significantly reducing the recovery time objective (RTO) and ensuring swift resumption of operations.User-Friendly Interface and Automation:
Seamless Data Replication: Using Dbvisit StandbyMP, CoQliQo achieved seamless data replication between primary and DR sites, removing the need/cost for Enterprise Edition and Data Guard.
Integration with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI): Leveraging OCI with StandbyMP offers scalability, enhanced security and Gold Standard Disaster Recovery.

Results:

Enhanced Data Integrity: Continuous data replication minimizes data loss, safeguarding critical business information and maintaining data integrity, allowing CoQliQo to meet its RTO/RPO objectives.
Cost-Effective: StandbyMP offers all the power of Oracle Data Guard without the cost. It delivers enterprise-level disaster recovery capabilities without the approximately 600% increase in licensing costs required for an upgrade to the Enterprise Edition.
Reduced Complexity: By unifying their DR strategy on OCI and integrating Dbvisit, they significantly reduced the complexity of managing multiple DR solutions, leading to improved efficiency and reduced operational overhead.
OCI’s and StandbyMP's scalable and secure infrastructure has further strengthened CoQliQo’s overall IT resilience, providing better flexibility and simplified management.

The solution

In the pursuit of flexibility and innovation, ISVs can encounter roadblocks with inflexible providers, limiting their ability to integrate and then economically scale their solution. Dbvisit StandbyMP addresses these challenges by offering Enterprise-class Disaster Recovery across multiple platforms without the cost of moving to Enterprise editions. This frees ISVs to build enterprise-class solutions on Standard Edition software, avoiding significant cost and bringing standardisation across multiple platforms.

Efficient Data Replication and DR Management: Dbvisit StandbyMP ensures continuous data replication from the primary database to the standby database, minimizing data loss in case of a disaster and ensuring RTO objectives are met.
Quick Failover and Recovery: The solution provides quick failover capabilities, significantly reducing the recovery time objective (RTO) and ensuring that operations can resume swiftly.
Ease of Use: Dbvisit StandbyMP's user-friendly interface and automation features allow CoQliQo’s technical team to manage the DR process internally without the need for specialized external support.

The Importance of Disaster Recovery for ISVs

"For ISVs like CoQliQo, having a robust disaster recovery strategy is crucial to maintaining client trust and operational integrity. CoQliQo’s adoption of Dbvisit StandbyMP, combined with the integration of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, has significantly bolstered our disaster recovery strategy, ensuring robust protection against data loss and downtime."

Christophe Moison - CoQliQo

OCI Integration

In addition to utilizing Dbvisit StandbyMP, CoQliQo integrated their DR strategy with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This integration offered additional benefits:

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provides CoQliQo with the flexibility to scale resources up or down based on demand, ensuring the ability to handle peak loads without compromising performance. Additionally, OCI offers enhanced security features, such as encryption and robust identity management, to protect sensitive business data. Moreover, with OCI's pay-as-you-go model, CoQliQo only pays for the resources they use, optimizing their IT expenditure and ensuring cost-effectiveness.

Since implementing Dbvisit StandbyMP and integrating with OCI, CoQliQo has simplified and automated its disaster recovery capabilities. The internal management of the DR solution has empowered their technical team to respond more rapidly to incidents, ensuring business continuity with minimal disruption.

oracle cloud

Tags: DR for Oracle Cloud, OCI

Delivering effective Disaster Recovery for ISVs

In Summary

CoQliQo’s adoption of Dbvisit StandbyMP, combined with the integration of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, has significantly bolstered its disaster recovery strategy, ensuring robust protection against data loss and downtime. By leveraging these solutions, CoQliQo has enhanced its resilience, safeguarding its operations and maintaining service continuity in the face of potential disruptions. This case study illustrates the importance of a well-implemented DR solution for ISVs with critical, high-volume transactional systems, demonstrating how Dbvisit StandbyMP and OCI can be vital components of an effective disaster recovery plan.