Fenaco replaces infrastructure and relies on Flash
The agricultural cooperative fenaco has been successfully running a range of core applications on IBM Power Systems and the IBM i operating system for many years. These include SAP. The growing infrastructure has now been consolidated in collaboration with ITpoint and enhanced with flash memory.
Initial situation
For Flagfood, a solid IT infrastructure for office automation and a stable ERP system are essential for trading in raw materials. For many of fenaco's divisions, high system availability is absolutely essential. For example, for the meat processing specialist Ernst Sutter AG or one of the leading beverage producers, RAMSEIER Suisse AG. For these organizations, it is essential that the IT is permanently available. Especially the ERP. This is one of the reasons why fenaco has relied on the highly stable "Power i" platform, among others, to operate critical applications for a number of years. Despite virtualization technologies, separate projects had resulted in fenaco having several IBM Power Systems with many directly attached disk expansion units in use at the Winterthur and Sursee sites. In collaboration with ITpoint, the fenaco Informatik team examined options for optimizing power, cooling, rack space and maintenance - while maintaining at least the same availability and performance.
Solution
In a detailed conception and planning phase, specialists from fenaco and ITpoint defined the project implementation. Particular attention was paid to the smooth migration of applications with 7 x 24 operation within the few annual maintenance windows. The design phase was followed by implementation: the existing six Power systems at the Winterthur and Sursee sites were replaced by a new Power and storage infrastructure. New IBM Power S824 systems with POWER8 processor technology were implemented at the Winterthur and Sursee sites. The Power system in Sursee was defined as a disaster recovery system. The IBM i licenses that were reduced as a result of the consolidation were transferred to the new systems. The existing Vision iTera high-availability software was adapted accordingly. The Power Systems now access external IBM V9000 storage systems via 16Gb FC SAN. This micro-latency flash system combines maximum performance with functionality. One of these functions is "Real-Time Compression". Today, this integrated software reduces the data of all partitions at fenaco by around 70%. By using flash technology, over 200 conventional disks could be reduced to two dozen flash modules.
Advantages & future
- Increased overall system performance with reduced rack space: > 75%
Reduced energy consumption: approx. 35 kW ongoing or approx. 300,000 kWh per year - Return on investment: approx. 1 year
- Simplified operations for the fenaco IT team
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