Case Study: Cornerstone OnDemand achieves 40% faster database response, 100X faster failover, and near‑real‑time data warehousing with SanDisk Fusion ioMemory

Cornerstone Ondemand Sees Game-Changing Innovation With Cisco Ucs And Fusion Iomemory Solutions From Sandisk

Cornerstone OnDemand, a cloud-based SaaS provider for recruiting, training and workforce management, faced performance and availability limits from an aging SQL Server clustering architecture and a heterogeneous server/storage estate. The team needed to upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server 2014 AlwaysOn, remove single points of failure, simplify hardware spares/firmware management, and support a near–real-time data warehouse and better reporting for customers.

They deployed Cisco UCS C460 M4 servers populated with SanDisk Fusion ioMemory SX300 PCIe accelerators, creating a diversified local+array storage footprint and segregated “swimlanes” for web, app and DB tiers. The change delivered a ~40% improvement in IIS latency, cut failover impact from roughly 10 minutes to about a seven‑second hiccup, enabled near‑real‑time reporting (≈15‑minute replica lag), increased IOPS and capacity per server, sped migration completion, and unlocked new service and operational efficiencies.

Cornerstone OnDemand

Reza Seraji

IT Architect