And unlike with the previous vendor’s ADC solutions, we are confident the F5 systems will perform as advertised.” Superior uptime “We can plan much more easily now because we can scale within the VIPRION chassis itself. “With VIPRION, we can deploy the same ADCs and architecture for years to come, despite tremendous projected growth,” says Kelty. The F5 VIPRION solution enables Pandora to continue to scale smoothly for years without having to replace its current load balancing devices. As a result, Pandora could serve its more than 62 million and growing numbers of users with consistent, top-notch performance. These delivered smooth application performance and presented no performance hotspots or bottlenecks. With its original BIG-IP systems, Pandora was able to create load balancing pools of up to 100 or more application server nodes. Superior scalability with smooth, consistent performance Benefitsįrom both its original F5 BIG-IP systems and the recent F5 VIPRION upgrade, Pandora realized several benefits, including superior scalability, performance, and uptime, as well as enhanced user satisfaction. Pandora also decided to deploy two pairs of F5 BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager (GTM) devices in its West Coast and East Coast data centers to ensure users would experience superior streaming audio performance. “We were able to start with a single pair of VIPRION chassis, with a single blade in each, and will be able to add up to three more blades as traffic needs dictate.” The F5 ScaleN architecture of VIPRION allows organizations to start with a single ADC blade and scale as required by adding blades. Instead of forcing organizations to replace the entire ADC unit or purchase additional units when traffic volume surpasses its capabilities, the VIPRION solution provides application delivery in a blade server chassis configuration. “Our growth accelerated so fast that, last year, we felt it was time to upgrade to a solution that would allow us to add a lot more capacity without having to upgrade the entire device.” This led Pandora to F5 VIPRION. Pandora started with two pairs of BIG-IP 6400 devices, which it upgraded to BIG-IP 8900 devices a few years later. “F5’s implementation was very quick, thanks to a knowledgeable engineering group that could answer all our questions on the spot, and the solution outperformed all the others we tested,” he says. F5 BIG-IP systems won hands down, according to Kelty. In 2007, Pandora considered several replacement ADC solutions and ran pilot testing on three. In 2012, Pandora decided its projected growth required another ADC upgrade, with even more massive scalability than it had needed in the past. The result was a transition to F5 BIG-IP systems in 2007, which lasted Pandora through five years of enormous growth. “We needed a solution capable of handling 100 application server nodes or more in a single pool without any performance bottlenecks.”įinally, Pandora was looking for a product that could manage SSL offload at a future date. “We needed a solution that would do what the vendor promised, with a solid code base that wouldn’t force us to devise all kinds of tweaks, scripts, and workarounds,” says Kelty. When the two failover ADC units proved incapable of handling Pandora’s traffic volume, leading to significant downtime, Pandora decided it was time for a change. “We needed 14 ADC units in one data center-including 2 for failover-just for audio delivery.” Pandora’s ADC solution also required its already overextended engineering team to create and implement manual tweaks and workarounds just to allow application server nodes to be taken down for servicing and updates. “Our ADC solution was just not living up to the vendor’s promises,” says Kelty. However, the solution wasn’t meeting Pandora’s scalability and performance needs. “We have to be sure we can always handle the next wave of users and user traffic six months down the road.”įive years ago, Pandora was using a different Application Delivery Controller (ADC) to distribute user application requests to a data center farm of music delivery servers. “Since we’re an Internet radio service, we want users to have the best possible listening experience with no delays or outages,” says James Kelty, Director of Network Engineering for Pandora. With listeners tuning in for more than a billion hours per month, Pandora must always be ready to handle massive amounts of traffic with top-level performance. ![]() ![]() Launched in 2005, Pandora is the leading Internet radio service, streaming personalized music and comedy to tens of millions of listeners worldwide based on each user’s individual preferences.
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