Case Study: Sheetz, Inc. achieves 99.999% uptime and reduced costs with Stratus Technologies' ftServer systems

Mission-critical transaction processing and cost savings add up to success for progressive c-store chain

Sheetz, a family-owned convenience-store chain with about 380 locations across six states, needed rock-solid, 24/7 payment processing and immediate loyalty-program fulfillment to support rapid growth (about 25 new stores a year) and avoid lost sales during outages. The company’s objectives included mission-critical uptime, rapid transaction performance, disaster recovery, and a platform ready for future Hyper-V virtualization.

Sheetz deployed Stratus ftServer systems with Active Upgrade, Microsoft Windows Server and SQL Server, and ACI Retail Commerce Server, using live SQL data replication and geographically split transaction processing. The result was >99.999% uptime, fourfold performance improvement, reduced planned downtime, elimination of a separate backup server, in-house transaction routing cost savings, and simpler day‑to‑day management while supporting continued growth and loyalty-program demands.

Sheetz, Inc.

Randy Pielmeier

Payments System Administrator