64-bit Linux-compatible on-memory database running on PRIMEQUEST delivers dramatically faster data processing for Japanese convenience store retailer -- Fujitsu Limited today announced that Circle K Sunkus, the major Japanese convenience store retailer, has utilized the Fujitsu PRIMEQUEST mission-critical IA server in the reconstruction of its information analysis system. The enhanced new system, which will become fully operational at the end of this month, is a data warehouse system that enables the search and analysis of sales data to support product planning and store management. Powered by a PRIMEQUEST server equipped with a 64-bit processor and running the Oh-Pa 1/3 on-memory database from Fujitsu Broad Solution and Consulting Inc. (Fujitsu BSC), the system achieves dramatically faster data processing. Circle K Sunkus gathers more than 10 million data points generated from the sales that take place each day at its stores across Japan, analyzes the trends revealed by that data, and uses the resulting information in planning new products and operating its stores. In order to conduct these tasks more rapidly and efficiently in the highly competitive convenience store business, Circle K Sunkus has now centralized databases and data marts that were configured according to organization and work process, and rebuilt its information analysis system. Seeking to significantly increase data processing speed, Circle K Sunkus selected a Fujitsu system comprising PRIMEQUEST, which operates in a 64-bit Linux environment and is ideal for database server, and the Fujitsu BSC Oh-Pa 1/3 on-memory database, which reduces the time required for data search, analysis, and batch processing through an extremely fast on-memory data processing engine. Fujitsu Chubu Systems Limited was in charge of the actual system construction. Circle K Sunkus' enhanced new information analysis system will be used to carry out a wide range of analyses by the supervisors who run its stores, as well as the merchandisers who recommend products to sell and develop new products. The system is composed of three layers: web application servers, which utilize the Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX620 S2 blade server; a front-end database server for carrying out database processing and large-volume batch processing; and a central data warehouse server, which houses and stores all the sales data generated on a daily basis by stores throughout Japan. One PRIMEQUEST server each is used for the front-end database server and the central data warehouse server, reducing the number of servers required for these tasks from the original three to two. For the front database server, use of Oh-Pa 1/3, which makes possible high-speed data processing in a 64-bit Linux environment, enables large-volume batch processing and rapid responses to information queries from supervisors. For the central data warehouse, the powerful combination of PRIMEQUEST and Oracle Database 10g will enable merchandisers using OLAP tools to analyze trends in sales results to reduce search times to 30 seconds or less, compared with the few minutes required heretofore. In addition, the new system enhances supervisors' accessibility to the data they need for running stores by displaying the information in web-based format that can be viewed from mobile environments. The information analysis system has been installed at Fujitsu Tatebayashi System Center, and Circle K Sunkus is also using various Fujitsu outsourcing services, including application operation and data center operation. Web application server - Server: PRIMERGY BX620 S2 - OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES v.3 - Application server: Interstage Application Server Front-end data server - Server: PRIMEQUEST 480 - OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS v.4 - Database: Oh-Pa 1/3 Central data warehouse server - Server: PRIMEQUEST 480 - OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS v.4 - Database: Oracle Database 10g OLAP Server - Server: PRIMERGY BX620 S2 - OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES v.3 - OLAP: Oracle Business Intelligence