Schiphol, The Netherlands, April 5, 2012 – Businesses need to adapt to change quickly and therefore turn to virtualization and cloud technologies to improve efficiency, reduce complexity, and drive down cost. With its unified, pre-designed, and pre-tested data center solution FlexPod, Cisco and NetApp help joint customers to accelerate and simplify the way to a service-based IT model. More and more customers such as
EGGER rely on this solution to support business growth and respond to new challenges.
EGGER’s business maxim “think globally and act locally” matters in IT as well. Data center manager Matthias Haidekker is an early adopter of virtualization on all levels. By moving to a FlexPod solution as the core infrastructure stack, Haidekker is now able to run all Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP applications fully virtualized within a centralized IT environment and deliver them via Citrix solutions. Egger operates 17 plants in Austria, France, Germany, Romania, Russia, Turkey and the UK and has over 20 sales offices worldwide accompanied by an international partner network. Based in St. Johann in Tyrol (Austria), the family-run supplier of solid wood and wood-based materials employs 6,500 staff with about 1.8 billion Euros revenue for FY2010/11.
“FlexPod truly enables a service-oriented IT model and complements our centralized IT set up. We can quickly meet new business requirements and serve all our users throughout Europe—whatever data they need. Without FlexPod we couldn’t deliver at today’s high service and efficiency levels as well as provide broad application support,” says Haidekker. Growing in its core markets, EGGER’s IT organization needs to integrate new plants and additional users at fast pace. Their latest acquisition in Gagarin, Russia, for example, brought 500 employees more on board.
SAP Applications built on FlexPod
EGGER deploys SAP ECC 6.0, SAP NetWeaver 7.1, alongside SAP modules such as CRM, BI, MII, and Solution Manager and maps all its sites within the SAP landscape supporting 2,000 concurrent users. SAP Business Warehouse has about 700 concurrent users. As the FlexPod solution is certified for SAP it was a perfect fit to migrate the landscape as well and decommission the existing SAN. “A great benefit is NetApp’s deep integration with SAP and Oracle solutions which helps to automate and accelerate data protection. Backing up and restoring two terabytes of data within 20 minutes is just tremendous,” states Haidekker.
Since EGGER has migrated the SAN data onto the FlexPod, there is no more a need for stand-by admin resources to work during nights and weekends to enhance disk capacity to avoid business disruption: FlexPod volumes adapt their sizes flexibly as needed. This is just one example of how FlexPod data management releases the administrative burden for EGGER’s team of four handling the infrastructure.
“FlexPod was the most intriguing concept,” says Haidekker. “It includes not only proven NetApp virtualization, snapshot data protection, and other features, but also Cisco’s easy scalability, stateless computing, and flexible operations and integrates with VMware tools to simplify administration. Overall, its seamless virtualization and mobility capabilities support always-on business processes. The co-operative support model from Cisco, NetApp, and VMware was decisive, as it provides help right away, no matter whose component causes a case.”
“By simplifying data center infrastructure with an architectural approach that unifies compute, fabric, and storage technologies, organizations gain transparency and visibility across their data centers and break down the traditional silos in an IT infrastructure. Egger’s deployment of FlexPod is a great example of how companies can use network-based technology to move effectively to a service-orientated model, allowing the IT department to be significantly more agile and responsive to the needs of the business,” says Wendy Mars, director, data centre and unified computing system, Cisco.
“The beauty of the FlexPod concept is its versatility. Today, we offer more than 13 design guides shaped for a range of mission critical business applications as well as server and desktop virtualization enabling cloud infrastructures. Customers such as EGGER can easily combine what suits their needs best and benefit from joint vendor support,” says John Rollason, senior manager product and solutions alliances EMEA, NetApp.
FlexPod solution solves infrastructure renewal
EGGER’s move to a FlexPod data center solution resulted from a major update of the storage, backup, server and network infrastructure in 2011:
- Standardize existing storage, a NetApp unified architecture for Microsoft business applications and archiving and a legacy HP storage area network (SAN) for SAP on Oracle database 10g
- Deploy NFS as the network protocol standard
- Upgrade to 10Gb network performance
- Renew blade server infrastructure
- Replace tape backup by backup to disk and replication
- Build a second data center and evolve disaster recovery to business continuity
The solution in place includes a NetApp FAS6210 MetroCluster configuration with 650 terabytes (gross) and integrated data management, Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) servers with stateless computing and Cisco Nexus switches, combined with VMware virtualization products. Direct NFS (dNFS) as the network protocol boosted performance for databases and virtual machines by 100 percent.
FlexPod at a glance
In November 2011, the FlexPod architecture turned one year old. Today, more than 600 customers in 33 countries from North America to Hungary have deployed it, reflecting 233% growth in customer adoption in less than a year.
Cisco and NetApp offer CVDs (Cisco Validated Designs) on FlexPod for mission critical applications such as desktop virtualization (Citrix XenDesktop & VMware View), Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle, and SAP. FlexPod accommodates all major hypervisors, including Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, and Citrix XenServer. Also, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system has been tested and validated.
FlexPod allows customers to manage their shared infrastructure via open APIs or choose a solution using Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud as well as another validated management solution, for example from Cloupia. FlexPod offers enhanced security: Its secure multi-tenancy capability has been validated with a CVD and gained multiple respected and independent audits. Third-party certifications prove that it meets rigorous security standards required by government agencies and the financial industry.
Cisco and NetApp support the joint solution not only through a co-operative support model in conjunction with VMware, but also by growing partner focused services, including the global FlexPod unified demo lab with in-depth remote hands on post-sales training; a comprehensive architecting, designing, and training program; and the FlexPod sales desk to facilitate partner sales in EMEA, North America and APAC. More than 150 channel partners worldwide have been FlexPod qualified to date.
About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. Our commitment to living our core values and consistently being recognized as a great place to work around the world are fundamental to our long-term growth and success, as well as the success of our pathway partners and customers. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at
www.netapp.com/nl.
NetApp, the NetApp logo, and Go further, faster are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.
Voor verdere persinformatie, fotomateriaal of een interview kunt u contact opnemen met Sander van Buuren van LEWIS PR:
Tel.: +31 (0)40 2354600
E-mail:
sander.vanbuuren@lewispr.com
http://www.lewispr.com
Voor meer informatie over NetApp kunt u contact opnemen met Robert Jan Dullaart van NetApp:
Tel.: +31 (0)20 503 9600
E-mail:
robertjan.dullaart@netapp.com