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Virtuoso® Standardizes on Liquid Computing's Unified Computing System for Hosted Travel Services
Leading Luxury Travel Network Expands Service and Cuts Operating Costs with Liquid Computing
STAMFORD, CT – June 22, 2009 – Liquid Computing, a leader in unified computing infrastructure for the dynamic data center, today announced that Virtuoso®, the leading luxury travel network, has standardized on the LiquidIQ unified computing system for hosting the web-based services it provides to its network of upscale travel agencies. Virtuoso comprises over 300 agencies with over 6,000 elite travel specialists, and more than 1,000 travel providers and destinations worldwide.
Virtuoso made the decision to transition to LiquidIQ as part of an IT modernization initiative designed to support the company's aggressive plans to grow its business while driving cost efficiencies. LiquidIQ tightly integrates with NetApp to replace a complex assortment of server, network, storage, and virtualization technologies that were becoming increasingly costly to manage and align in response to business needs. A fully integrated "data center in a chassis," LiquidIQ drives down the time and cost of managing IT infrastructure through unified, software-based control of all resources.
"Our plan is to grow revenue ten-fold in the next five years while at the same time reducing our operating costs, and LiquidIQ was the only platform that could support our goals," said Joel Chaplin, CIO, Virtuoso. "Liquid Computing won out over competing solutions because they provide the same consolidation advantages but also provide superior control, enabling us to more efficiently scale and manage our operations. By moving to LiquidIQ, we're lowering our operating costs by as much as 80 percent from reductions in footprint, power consumption and administrative overhead."
The LiquidIQ platform enables Virtuoso to solve its biggest IT operational challenge of maintaining and deploying clean server configurations when provisioning new equipment or when moving the application between environments, such as from test and development to production or from production to a disaster recovery site. With the LiquidIQ platform, all key server attributes are encapsulated in user-defined profiles, stored in a secure database, and can be deployed on any physical server within the chassis in minutes. Virtuoso assessed virtualization technology, but quickly determined that it would not be able to support the requirements of the company's applications.
"Virtualization shares pooled resources, so it only works in environments that don't require a high degree of availability or where performance is not an issue," said Chaplin. "LiquidIQ provides us with the cost savings and flexibility of deploying virtualized solutions, or running our applications and infrastructure on physical machines, which is essential in our production environment."
"Virtuoso is a forward-thinking company that is embracing dynamic data center infrastructure to improve service delivery for its large and rapidly expanding base of global customers," said Vik Desai, CEO of Liquid Computing. "Like a growing number of companies today, Virtuoso has recognized LiquidIQ as the simplest and most cost-effective path to scaling and managing hosted services through real-time software control of IT infrastructure."
About Liquid Computing, Inc.
Liquid Computing is a leader in unified computing infrastructure for the dynamic data center. The company's core product, LiquidIQ, is a complete "data center in a chassis" that drives down the time and costs of managing IT infrastructure through unified software-based control of servers, storage and networking resources. Liquid Computing has offices in Stamford, CT and Ottawa, Canada. The company has customers throughout North America and has established partnerships with global industry leaders including Intel, Microsoft, VMWare, Oracle, RedHat, NetApp and AMD. For more information, visit www.liquidcomputing.com.
About Virtuoso
Virtuoso® is the industry's leading luxury travel network. This by-invitation-only organization comprises over 300 agencies with more than 6,000 elite travel specialists in 22 countries in North and South America, the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand, as well as over 1,200 of the world's best travel providers and premier destinations. The network's member agencies generate over $5.1 billion annually in travel sales, making the group the most powerful in the luxury travel segment. Their relationships with the finest travel companies provide the network's affluent clientele with exclusive amenities, rare experiences and privileged access. Virtuoso is the exclusive network of travel services and benefits provided by MasterCard® for participating World Elite MasterCard® programs. For more information, please visit www.virtuoso.com.