Aetna (US Healthcare)

"U.S. Healthcare now processes 21% more transactions per second, and blocking on tempdb has virtually disappeared."

Michael Mathias,
Director of Information Systems
Aetna (US Healthcare)

Overview
Aetna (US Healthcare), a rapidly growing $3.5 billion managed health care services provider, needed to improve transaction performance and eliminate blocking on the tempdb that was causing dramatically slow query response times on the company's critical quoting and provider applications. The applications, which were running on Sybase 10, were the lifeblood of this information-based business whose customers relied heavily on timely information The performance problems were quickly leading to customer dissatisfaction and revenue and productivity losses.

The problem began to surface when the number of users accessing the quoting and provider applications quadrupled from 50 to more than 200 in a short period of time, causing blocks to occur in the tempdb. Michael Mathias, director of information systems, was concerned because the business was expanding rapidly, and the database would need to support an increasing number of users and simultaneous queries.

According to Mathias, "Our business is severely affected when our quoting and provider databases are not operating at full potential. It is very important that our customers receive information when they need it from our service staff. If our employees cannot provide timely information, our business bottom line is affected."

Mathias was able to eliminate the blocking on tempdb by installing two 900 Class Solid-State Disk systems. He was also able to process 21% more transactions per second and improve system response time as much as 80%. The Solid Data system enabled Mathias to meet his performance objectives, and the company has seen a return to customer satisfaction, which is reflected in its bottom line.

Summary
U.S. Healthcare needed to improve transaction performance and eliminate blocking on the tempdb that was causing dramatically slow query response times on the company's critical quoting and provider applications. The performance problems were quickly leading to customer dissatisfaction and negatively impacting the company's bottom line. Excellerator 800 virtually eliminated blocking on tempdb and improved performance. The Solid Data system increased transactions per second by 21% and improved system response time as much as 80%. The company was able to provide fast response times and high data availability, improving customer satisfaction.

Aetna (US Healthcare) Case Study PDF: 17 KB (ushealth.pdf)