E X E C U T I V E S U M M A RY

Industry
Rock-Tenn is one of North America's
leading manufacturers of packaging
products, merchandising displays and
recycled paperboard. Since its founding
in 1936, Rock-Tenn has focused on
developing packaging and paperboard
products that bring high value to its
customers, employees and shareholders.
The Company operates manufacturing
facilities throughout the United States,
Canada, Mexico and Chile, and employs
approximately 8,800 people.
Business Situation
Rock-Tenn leverages Microsoft SQL
Server databases for their critical
applications including manufacturing,
design, financial, and IT management
applications. Without a dedicated SQL
Server DBA, Rock-Tenn had no insight
into the performance of their servers.
Without this visibility Rock-Tenn was
unable to proactively accommodate the
organization’s resource needs.
Business Scenario
Keith Luken, Rock-Tenn’s server architect,
was in search of a SQL Server
management solution that would
eliminate the complexities of SQL Server
administration without increasing head
count and workload. Most products he
evaluated were too complicated,
requiring intense SQL Server experience
or a dedicated SQL Server DBA.
Benefits
Rock-Tenn now leverages Idera products
to provide a single console to manage
every SQL Server instance within the
organization. With Idera Rock-Tenn is
able to cut the cost and time of
managing SQL Server databases in half.
Products
Cuts SQL Server
Management Time in
Half with Idera
Rock-Tenn leverages Microsoft SQL Server
at the core of their critical business applications
including manufacturing, design, financial and IT
management. Using Idera’s SQL diagnostic
manager (SQLdm) and SQLschedule products,
Rock-Tenn gains greater insight into the
performance and availability of their SQL Servers
and dramatically reduces management overhead.
Rock-Tenn DBA Keith Luken recognized the immediate need for greater
insight into their SQL Servers. “When systems had issues, we were not able to
quickly identify where the problem was. We spent a great deal of time trying
to figure out what was impacting the server and why. Even more so, we had
no idea when we needed to add capacity or leverage existing capacity,
because we had no easy way to measure server performance. We needed
insight into the performance of our servers so that we could anticipate the
organization’s needs and then react quickly when necessary,” said Luken.
REDUCING THE COST AND COMPLEXITY OF
MANAGING SQL SERVERS
Like many companies, SQL Server is beginning to play an ever more
important role in Rock-Tenn’s IT infrastructure, but they do not have a
dedicated SQL Server DBA on staff. With limited SQL Server resources,
Rock-Tenn needs a solution that could reduce the complexity of managing
SQL while at the same time giving them more insight into SQL performance.
“Most of the other products we found required an experienced SQL Server
DBA and they were often limited to specialized areas, like just transaction
statements. They weren’t comprehensive enough for our needs, nor were
they easy to use. We needed a solution that would not increase the time,
money and head count spent on managing our SQL Servers.”
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• SQL diagnostic manager

• SQLschedule 1
IDERA CUSTOMER INSIGHTS
For Rock-Tenn, Idera’s greatest value is
peace of mind. “Idera’s tools also give us
the ability to think more proactively. What
used to take us hours of investigation we
can now identify and understand in a
matter of minutes through a single
console. We aren’t worried that
something may go wrong. We know
exactly how our SQL Servers are
performing and are better able to adjust
to the needs of our entire organization.
Now we can forecast SQL Server
implementations and when new projects
arise, we can study the performance
levels of our SQL Server infrastructure
and proactively anticipate how servers will
perform with additional workload.”
Keith Luken
Server Architect
Rock-Tenn Company
C O N TA C T S
Idera Corporate Headquarters
802 Lovett Boulevard
Houston, TX USA 77006
Toll-free: 1.877.GO.IDERA
Phone: 713.523.4433
Fax: 713.862.5210
www.idera.com
Sales Information:
sales@idera.com
General Information: info@idera.com
Idera – a division of BBS Technologies. SQL diagnostic
manager, SQLdm, SQLschedule, Idera and the Idera
Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of BBS
Technologies or its subsidiaries in the United States and
other jurisdictions. All other company and product
names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective companies.
© 2005 BBS Technologies, all rights reserved.
CS10606AMFI MD 1003
With Idera’s SQLdm, Rock-Tenn can monitor all instances of SQL server
from a single console and can quickly drill down for more detailed
information and performance stats. “We found SQLdm extremely easy to
use and easy to evaluate. You don’t need to be a seasoned SQL Server
DBA to gain immediate value from Idera’s products. Much of the
knowledge you need to manage, administer and schedule jobs is built right
into their products. That is really important to us, because although SQL
Server is beginning to play a more significant role at Rock-Tenn, we
don’t plan to hire additional DBAs right now. With Idera, keeping SQL
Servers running smoothly is a breeze.”
E A S Y I N S TA L L AT I O N A N D D E E P I N S I G H T
A key factor in Rock-Tenn’s decision to leverage SQLdm was the ease of
installation. “We simply downloaded the evaluation from the Web,
installed it on a single workstation, and in a short period of time, we were
able to manage all our servers,” Luken said. “SQLdm requires nothing to
be installed on the actual server. This keeps the footprint very low and
makes SQLdm a breeze to install and use; even on remote databases.”
SQLdm provides Rock-Tenn with a deep view into the performance of their
SQL Servers. SQLdm organizes current status and performance information
into easy-to-use diagnostic data. Robust features enable DBAs to manage
SQL Servers with little to no effort. “With SQLdm running, we don’t have to
worry about our servers. If there is a performance issue, SQLdm allows us to
quickly identify and resolve it. It has cut our management time in half and
has significantly increased the efficiency of our staff. We now have confidence
in the performance of our SQL servers, so we can focus on other things.”
In tandem with SQLdm, Rock-Tenn also leverages Idera’s SQLschedule to
schedule and manage SQL Server job streams. SQLschedule streamlines
SQL Server job management, dramatically reducing job failure rates and
administrator overhead while increasing performance and availability.
“SQLschedule can send customized and specialized reports and alerts to
the specific DBAs or application owners that are in charge of those jobs or
databases. This saves us a lot of unnecessary worry on jobs that don’t
involve our entire staff.”
For Rock-Tenn, Idera’s greatest value is peace of mind. “Idera’s tools also
give us the ability to think more proactively. What used to take us hours of
investigation we can now identify and understand in a matter of minutes
through one single console. We aren’t worried that something may go
wrong. We know exactly how our SQL Servers are performing and are better
able to adjust to the needs of our entire organization. Now we can forecast
SQL Server implementations and when new projects arise, we can study the
performance levels of our SQL Server infrastructure and proactively anticipate
how servers will perform with additional workload,” concluded Luken.
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