ZLE: The right stuff for the real-time enterprise

The trouble is, layer upon layer of legacy applications and processes get in the way. Constructed over years—even decades—they can make it virtually impossible to get the up-to-date, enterprisewide view of the business and customers that's essential to make split-second, informed decisions.

But HP has met the challenge by combining sophisticated enterprise application integration and operational data store technologies in the NonStop platform-based Zero Latency Enterprise architecture.

With the ZLE framework, companies across the industry spectrum are breaking the latency barrier. They're integrating enterprise data and applications in real time. And they're using that information to make more effective decisions, get to market faster, and enhance customer service.

Today, the key to survival is an adaptive enterprise that leverages the power of real-time information. ZLE makes that happen.

Sprint, the telecommunications giant, is made up of three separate divisions: local, long distance, and wireless PCS. Principal network design engineer Tom Steele is with long distance, the group that challenged HP to expand its fledgling ZLE architecture into a new kind of solution—one that could handle Sprint's massive and unpredictable mixed workload of online transactions and ad hoc database queries.

The ZLE framework has become a key element in Sprint's computing infrastructure. Steele explains: "We need the ability to collect comprehensive information from the network so our customers can manage their own services, change the way those services are set up, and quickly adapt the network to their specific needs. HP's ZLE architecture allows us to do this."

With ZLE, Sprint can now collect call detail records coming out of the network (at the rate of thousands per second), insert them into a database, and immediately glean information from them.

"If a calling number is stolen, hundreds of illegitimate users may charge calls to it in a matter of minutes," said Steele. "Fraud in the network can amount to lost revenue of $1 million or more within an hour. The ability of the ZLE solution to detect fraud patterns is invaluable to Sprint."

As an adaptive enterprise, Sprint continues to enhance and expand its ZLE architecture to meet evolving business needs. "We are always making dynamic changes in the network, as calling patterns shift or as areas grow and change," noted Steele. "The flexibility of the ZLE architecture allows us to adapt our long-distance business quickly and effectively to serve our customers."

As Sprint continues to sharpen its customer focus, the ZLE architecture will play an increasingly important role. "In the past, we just worried about how to keep the network up and running," concluded Steele.

"But that's no longer enough. Now we need to provide exceptional customer service in addition to a network that never goes down. These are the things the ZLE architecture can do for us today. And in the future, there's no end to what we can put on the platform to enhance Sprint's business operations and the satisfaction of our customers."

So is your enterprise adaptive? More and more businesses are recognizing the competitive advantage of continuous availability and incremental scalability in their IT infrastructure. At the same time, they want the infrastructure to be adaptive—in other words, easy to enhance, modify, and integrate.

There is a growing trend toward building applications and infrastructures that are highly adaptive, especially in mission-critical, customer-facing systems at the high end. Enhanced adaptability translates directly into the ability to change applications or infrastructure without major upheaval.

How quickly can the business make changes? How fast can it react? How quickly can it offer services that its competition cannot? These are the questions that enterprises must answer today.

The adaptiveness of an infrastructure is measured by how much it costs to change it. When changes occur—in the form of modifying applications or integrating new ones, or upgrading complex technologies—an enterprise will pay significantly less if the infrastructure is adaptive. So investing upfront to handle such change makes good business sense.

There's no better place to start than with the flexible, scalable ZLE architecture. In fact, HP doesn't just sell ZLE solutions to our customers—we also use the technology to enhance HP's own business operations.