Case Study: Zen Nihon Shokuhin eliminates database bottlenecks and achieves 8X performance with SanDisk ION Accelerator

Zen-Nisshoku Chain Eliminates Database Bottlenecks And Achieves Eight-Fold Performance Improvements

Zen-Nisshoku Chain (zChain) is a nationwide Japanese grocery cooperative with about 1,800 stores that relies heavily on IT for POS, ordering and one-to-one marketing (1.5 million ZFSP members). Its 2007 Oracle-based Phase 1 infrastructure ran into storage capacity limits and serious performance bottlenecks that slowed overnight batch jobs and order processing; management set a mandate to double performance while cutting costs roughly in half.

After a six-month evaluation the company deployed a Phase 2 shared “Ultra-High Speed” storage system built on SanDisk ION Accelerator and Fusion ioMemory PCIe accelerators (with InfiniBand), migrating existing software without application changes. The upgrade delivered an eight-fold improvement in job execution, about four-fold faster Java web screens, faster nightly POS tallies (supporting ~400,000 accesses/day and saving the equivalent of 22 hours of tasks) and roughly a 32% cost reduction, while providing scalable capacity for future CRM and omni-channel initiatives.

Zen Nihon Shokuhin

Akira Onda

GM Information System Headquarters Senior Executive Officer