xkoto, the data virtualization company, today announced that Jumbo Tours, one of Europe’s leading specialists in providing incoming tourism services to the travel industry, has deployed GRIDSCALE to optimize its IBM DB2 database environment. As a result, Jumbo Tours has been able to maintain 100 percent availability of its critical online travel services, improve the efficiency of its data center personnel, and consolidate databases on lower-cost hardware.

“At Jumbo Tours, we were interested in a solution that would allow us to increase the capacity of our database without the need to purchase more expensive hardware. Moreover, we needed a system that could remain online 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Sergio Calzetta, IT Manager, Jumbo Tours. “GRIDSCALE provides us with a continuously available database solution that will be able to grow with our needs.”

According to Calzetta, a key factor in the selection of GRIDSCALE was Jumbo Tours’ stated business priority of ensuring the reliability of its business-critical information and the importance of protecting irreplaceable data. Since GRIDSCALE is an active-active solution, all the servers in the grid are accessible, fully utilized and can be dispersed geographically to mitigate disaster scenarios. Whether copies of the data are local or dispersed across multiple data centers in different cities, applications get consistent data, reliably and quickly.

GRIDSCALE also allows Jumbo Tours to keep its DB2 database online during backups and to perform administrative tasks such as database reorganization during regular business hours. This eliminated planned maintenance outages and reduced IT overtime.

By implementing GRIDSCALE, Jumbo Tours will be able to compete more aggressively through superior customer service, and expand within its market space – providing wholesale hotel and holiday accommodations and other services to tour operators and travel agencies serving end-customers.

“Travel and tourism companies, like many global businesses, know that in order to retain customers and gain new ones, they need to provide online booking services at any hour of the day,” said David Patrick, chief executive officer, xkoto. “We’re delighted that GRIDSCALE could help Jumbo Tours make its database environment more reliable, scalable and responsive.”

About Jumbo Tours

Jumbo Tours, well known international incoming network, represents some of the largest and most important Tour Operators, as well as important Travel Agency networks in Europe, Africa and America. Jumbo Tours is part of Alpitour World, the Italian leader in Tourism, and its headquarters is based in Palma de Majorca, Spain. Jumbo Tours’ specialist departments provide clients with all the services necessary to assist them in achieving maximum sales and growth in their specific markets. Jumbo Tours specializes in leisure tourism, urban tourism and events organization including: incentives, conventions and seminars.

Jumbonline.com is the brand dedicated to the online B2B market where travel agents and Tour Operators can find an easy to use tool for booking online accommodations, cars and transfers in 30 different countries. For more information, visit www.jumbotours.es or call + 34 971 211 100.

About xkoto

xkoto, the data virtualization company, is the provider of GRIDSCALE, breakthrough software that virtualizes the database to ensure maximum scalability and availability for critical applications. GRIDSCALE delivers unparalleled agility enabling businesses to stay ahead of rapidly changing requirements. GRIDSCALE is used by leading companies in financial services, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, retail and telecommunications. xkoto's partners include IBM, Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems. For more information, visit: www.xkoto.com or call +1.416.440.7001.