Key Takeaways
- Adopted Postgres to ensure a centralized database suited to a rapidly growing customer base
- Achieved proactive monitoring and tuning with the help of EDB Remote DBAs
- Executed a hybrid cloud/on-prem database migration optimizing spend while enhancing performance—with guidance from RDBA technical leads
- Established firm footing to further expand their national footprint without any scaling and performance concerns
Products
Industry
- Automotive, Software
About Wayne Reaves
Since its inception in 1987 Wayne Reaves has worked to provide dynamic software solutions to independently owned dealerships across the country. Headquartered in Macon, GA, Wayne Reaves has spent the last 35+ years building on the vision of its founder and namesake by providing a robust software suite that helps car dealerships streamline essential tasks such as managing inventory, processing sales, marketing and advertising online, financing customers, processing payments and running day-to-day operations backed by data driven insights.
Challenge
Prior to adopting Postgres, Wayne Reaves relied on a standalone database with software in a box model. As Jason Reaves, President at Wayne Reaves recounted, “Back in those days, we were actually developing software in a Microsoft owned product that allowed for powerful development using a suite of tools; however, the data had to be hosted locally on individual networks inside of the dealerships, and we realized that model would need to evolve in order to retain our position in the market.”
In order to effectively and consistently provide the services and support that Wayne Reaves’ DMS was known for, they needed a database that was dynamic, scalable and cost-effective.
Solution
Kiran Singh, CIO, states that the “speed, reliability and cost were three of the most important factors in making the decision to move to the Postgres environment.”
As both Reaves and Singh explained, Postgres provided what the organization and the dealerships it serves would want from the database underpinning a complex DMS solution.
“Stability and scalability are paramount for us,” Singh mentioned, “and Postgres has delivered on both the fronts plus more. Its near real time replication with the failover capability enables us to deliver a robust and reliable platform to our dealers.”
Despite the above-mentioned strengths of Postgres, Wayne Reaves didn't want to risk any database issues impacting its ability to deliver fast and reliable service to its dealers. It wanted the database fortified and its team's expertise augmented with dedicated and seasoned Postgres expertise to ensure the quality of service that its dealers trust and expect.
EDB Remote DBA Services ensure Wayne Reaves database engine is running smoothly
“When you have a database that’s serving as many customers as ours does, you don’t want to risk succumbing to an avoidable issue,” Singh related, “especially when your customers are relying on you to handle essential operations such as sales and payments and ensuring that the deals are flowing smoothly and swiftly.”
Reaves added: “My understanding is that, when we came across EDB in our search for outside support, the expertise and investment in Postgres became a key differentiator. We wanted a second set of eyes on our database, and EDB provided that from people who have worked with Postgres for years and years.”
These quality indicators led Wayne Reaves to deploying EDB’s Remote DBA Services (RDBA), which offered proactive monitoring of the business’ Postgres estate, ensuring that any potential problems could be nipped in the bud before they cause major outages or data loss.
“We had a fair amount of knowledge and support in house,” Singh recounted. “Nevertheless, we concluded that the consequences of not augmenting that team and bringing in seasoned expertise weren’t worth risking.”
Results
With the help of DJ Jejurkar, the EDB Primary Remote DBA Technical Lead assigned to manage Wayne Reaves’ database, the organization has been able to grow its customer base and scale its databases seamlessly.
“DJ and his team have always been incredibly responsive,” Singh told us. “User-friendly EDB customer support portal, ease of creating tickets, and the response time—how quickly the tickets are picked up—make any issue we have incredibly easy to deal with. At this point, we consider them part of our team.”
Proactive support yields incredible growth potential
“One of the other things we appreciate most about RDBA is how the EDB team can provide us with insight and advice for executing big database and infrastructure projects,” Singh explained.
“For instance, recently when we were planning our data center migration, DJ and his team worked with us to think strategically about growth and technological advances, plan the infra spend optimizing for capacity, performance, and cost, and ensure that there were no hiccups during the migration,” he stated.
The resultant execution was a massive success, not only saving Wayne Reaves money, but also enabling it to further minimize downtime and provide improved service to its dedicated customer base.
“Since this migration, thanks to EDB’s guidance, everything is running at a higher level,” Reaves stated.
Future
Wayne Reaves is constantly looking to build on its success, prepare for the technological shifts, and find new ways to improve and evolve.
“We’re constantly striving to make our infrastructure better, our solutions versatile, and our service stellar for our customers,” Singh underlined. “EDB has been an integral part of the team helping us achieve that.”