Tuebingen/Nijmegen/Brussel, 26 januari 2004 - In 2003 werd binnen transtec AG, met ttec Computers als Nederlandse en Belgische dochteronderneming, besloten tot een interne IT-omslag waarbij men af wilde van de Sparc-gebaseerde systemen met client-server architectuur en van dedicated lijnen tussen het hoofdkantoor en de buitenlandse vestigingen. Men wilde overstappen naar een toekomstgericht Intel clusterplatform dat hoge fail-safety en performance zou leveren. Na een succesvolle testperiode is het nieuwe IT-systeem sinds kort volledig operationeel.
Vooraf werd vastgesteld dat de nieuwe oplossing voor drie hoofdaspecten uitkomst moest bieden. Ten eerste was de koppeling tussen het hoofdkantoor en de sales-vestigingen belangrijk. Destijds verliep die via dedicated geleaste lijnen: een WAN linkup methode, wel met een goede performance, maar te hoge kosten.
Binnen de nieuwe architectuur zijn transtec's sales-vestigingen gekoppeld via DSL met terminal emulatie gebaseerd op Citrix.
Het tweede vereiste aspect was het realiseren van een aanzienlijke kostenverlaging. De hardware-investeringen die men deed voor het ontwikkelen van een nieuwe IT-architectuur kwamen uit op nog geen Euro 5000, - (routers, servers) en hebben zich in minder dan twee maanden terugverdiend. Hierdoor zijn transtec's maandelijkse 'lijn' kosten met 80 procent afgenomen.
Het derde en laatste aspect was de migratie van de centrale IT-applicaties naar een toekomstgeoriënteerd platform. Dit platform moest schaalbaar zijn, voldoen aan de eisen op het gebied van High Availability, de onderhoudskosten verminderen en afkomstig zijn uit de eigen productenreeks. Alle voorwaarden op een rij gezet maakte als snel duidelijk dat de centrale database-applicaties in de toekomst zouden moeten draaien op IA32/64 gebaseerde, high performance en geclusterde servers. Linux zou daarbij gebruikt worden als betrouwbaar en kosteneffectief besturingssysteem. Voor de centrale ERP- en Web-taken is gebruikgemaakt van Linux en voor het e-mailverkeer en office-oplossingen van Microsoft.
Een uitgebreide beschrijving en technische details kunt u in de onderstaande Engelstalige tekst vinden.
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USER REPORT
Tuebingen, Germany, 26 January 2004
transtec AG, the Tuebingen-based system manufacturer, forges new IT infrastructure.
New cluster system tested in the IT system manufacturer's organisation is also available to external customers
In IT year 2003, one marked by consolidation of IT architecture, transtec AG forged a new, future-oriented group IT infrastructure. At the heart of the concept was a re-orientation away from Sparc-based systems with client-server architecture and cross-border dedicated lines. The move was to a forward-looking Intel cluster platform providing high fail-safety and performance, using Linux for central ERP and Web tasks and Microsoft for mail traffic and office solutions.
The reorganisation of transtec's IT infrastructure now sees its foreign subsidiaries linked via DSL with terminal emulation based on Citrix, cutting line costs by 80 percent. User satisfaction with the performance and availability offered is very high. The project is running smoothly without any hitches.
transtec's IT infrastructure at the beginning of 2003 was as follows:
- The central applications, transtec's own ERP system "OBISPO" with some 200 users, the Web system (www.transtec.de) and the content management system ran on dedicated Solaris database servers (3 to 4-year-old Sun-compatible E 420 Sparc servers, 4 processors with 400 Mhz, 4 GB RAM each, and Oracle databases V9i). In the front-end area, Windows NT, 2000 and XP were used. Replacement hardware in the server sector - where necessary - was expensive, the high availability requirements were virtually unaffordable. The hardware performance had reached its limits. And as for scalability - no way. Using three parallel server operating systems (Windows, Solaris, Linux) also meant deploying human resources to provide the in-depth know-how needed, which had a negative impact on the IT division's cost efficiency.
- As a company positioned and operating in the European market, transtec has subsidiaries in seven neighbouring European countries. They were all linked to the corporate headquarters at Tuebingen, the site of the computing centre, through dedicated, leased lines: a WAN linkup method which is proven but unfortunately entails high costs. Neither were the users too pleased with the performance of the applications due, of course, to the restrictions the relatively narrow bandwidth imposed.
The challenge presenting the IT division was to come up with answers 1. for linking the staff in the sales branches to allow uninterrupted, high-performance work 2. for significantly cutting line costs 3. and for migrating the central IT applications to a future-oriented platform which is scalable, meets HA requirements, saves maintenance costs and - last but not least - comes from transtec's own product spectrum.
"The requirements soon made it plain to us that our central database applications should run on IA32/64-based, high-performance and clustered servers in future. Linux should be used as a reliable and cost-effective alternative operating system," reports Jochen Kapp, IT manager of transtec AG.
The ERP system and the Web/CMS system were transformed step-by-step from a single instance Solaris solution into a highly available and scalable database cluster solution. The first step, which went without any real hitches, was the actual migration of the databases from Solaris to Linux servers. Even at this early stage it proved that switching across to state-of-the-art hardware boosted performance significantly.
In parallel with this operation the transtec Competence Centre was preparing the cluster test system - now also available to external customers. With the assistance of the in-house cluster specialists, the high availability database clusters for processing transtec's entire business underwent comprehensive
testing.
The cluster nodes are each formed by 2 transtec X1002XSR27-E with 2 dual Xeon-processors with 2.4 Ghz and 4 GB RAM under SuSE Linux V9, clustered using Oracle software (RAC). Since the high availability requirement also encompassed the storage sector, a transtec SAN system of redundant design was used. "With the cluster systems we achieve far higher standardisation of our IT infrastructure. The use of commodity hardware will soon pay for itself, because we are now in a position to respond fast to needs and to scale without major input by changing or adding nodes", comments Jochen Kapp on the advantages of revamping the IT infrastructure.
A further step sees the migration of the last remaining database application (Oracle Financials), already implemented as a Web application, from a Sparc to an Intel cluster platform under Linux. transtec continues to use Microsoft in the desktop area and as a mailing solution due to its good record. The migration to Win2003/XP is coming up in the course of the year.
The costs of the cluster solutions used run up to about one fifth of those for a comparable, certified Sparc solution and so are on an affordable scale for a medium-sized business (comment: license costs for database software were not taken into consideration here, because they are very individual).
Since in the past one to two years DSL technology had become fully fit for business purposes as regards availability, those in charge of transtec decided at the beginning of 2003 to follow this route for linking the foreign branches, even though there were many sceptics. All the TC service companies asked, recommended and offered Frame Relay and MPLS solutions only, which were much more expensive than the present DSL solution.
In August 2003 transtec set up the first test installation. The choice of the "right" hardware soon proved to be a vital factor. Not all the possible routers operated without fault. As the operation of the test installation had quite soon reached an almost flawless stage, Business DSL connections from local providers were installed at all the other branches and were operative by October 2003.
The entire data traffic between the branches and the headquarters at Tuebingen is channelled via VPN tunnel. That means the VPN could not become a single point of failure and therefore was designed to be redundant straightaway. 2 transtec X1002WIR24-E with 2.4 GHz Pentium processors and 1 GB RAM are used as Linux cluster. The necessary hardware investments of less than Euro 5,000 (routers, servers) had paid off after only two months in operation, cutting transtec's monthly line costs by the fantastic sum of 80 percent! In parallel with changing the WAN linkage, transtec's IT specialists implemented a Windows-based terminal server cluster (Citrix) on the basis of transtec servers.
This solution secured an up to factor 5 performance step-up in utilisation of the main application, i.e. the Oracle FORM-based ERP system, particularly for branch personnel. This more than compensated for the somewhat slower DSL connection and since then has led to high user-satisfaction. Today 60 users work on the four high-performance, Intel-based transtec Xeon servers of the latest generation, each with 2 processors of 2.4 GHz and 2 GB RAM. The trend is upward.
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Over ttec Computers B.V.
ttec Computers B.V./BVBA is de Nederlandse/Belgische dochteronderneming van transtec AG. Het Duitse beursgenoteerde transtec AG levert op maat gemaakte IT-systemen, computer- en storage-oplossingen, netwerk- en randapparatuur. De organisatie is sinds 1980 actief op de markt en richt zich op de business-to-business sector. Het hoofdkantoor is gevestigd in Duitsland en er zijn vestigingen in zes andere Europese landen. Alle producten kunnen via het internet geconfigureerd en besteld worden. Bij transtec AG zijn in totaal 230 medewerkers werkzaam.
Voor meer informatie: www.ttec.nl / www.ttec.be
Contactpersoon bij ttec Computers in Nederland en België:
Marjan de Boer, e-mail: mdeboer@ttec.nl
Telefoon: 0800 - 022 0238
Voor redactionele informatie:
Influx PR - Margienke Bos - Deventerstraat 81, 7322 JL Apeldoorn.
Tel.: 055 - 366 30 34, e-mail: prinflux@cs.com. (Ref: Pb0204)