Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH

Sun Architecture, Servers Simplify SAP Consolidation

Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH) is the largest manufacturer of home appliances in Germany and the third largest in the world. BSH markets 14 brands, including Bosch, Constructa, Continental and Neff.

Business Issues

Reduce complexity and cost of maintaining and administering production SAP systems
Simplify process of adding and upgrading new SAP instances and application modules

Solution

The Sun N1 Advanced Architecture for SAP solution provided a tested, proven blueprint for redesigning BSH's SAP infrastructure. BSH migrated from different versions of SAP R/3 to the latest versions of mySAP.com products. A Sun Enterprise 15K server hosts the central SAP instance, while 17 Sun Fire V440 servers run more than 50 production SAP systems around the world.

Business Results

Projected savings of £765,000 (US$900,000) based on longer life of Sun Fire V440 servers
Reduced system administration cost and complexity
Fast deployment of SAP servers and application instances

Products / Solutions

Success at a Glance

Launching its first SAP system in 1997, BSH subsequently deployed 50 SAP R/3 systems to support its 34,500 employees around the world. Over time, individual SAP systems had been upgraded to different versions, and some had been modified for specific local needs. BSH also wanted to add other SAP modules to offer more automated ERP functions, which would add to the SAP system's complexity. By 2001, managing this environment had become increasingly costly and time-consuming. BSH sought to simplify its SAP environment through a new unified system called weBSH.net.

In 2002, BSH bought a Sun Fire 6800 server as a development environment and began to prototype a new SAP architecture. Preliminary tests showed that the complexity of consolidating and upgrading so many instances and systems was greater than BSH had anticipated, so the company looked to Sun for help.

“ We like the all-in-one approach of the Sun N1 Advanced Architecture for SAP. With our new weBSH.net architecture, we are already experiencing substantial time and cost savings. ”

— Wolfgang Kopp, IT & Infrastructure Manager, Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH

The Sun N1 Advanced Architecture for SAP solution provided a tested, proven blueprint for the weBSH.net infrastructure. The architecture features greater flexibility, higher server utilization and streamlined system administration. BSH migrated from various release levels of SAP R/3 to mySAP.com modules, synchronizing version levels across the enterprise and reducing administrative overhead. New SAP servers can now be quickly deployed to replace failed servers, and new SAP application instances can be added in five minutes.

To upgrade its SAP platform, BSH wanted to standardize on an application server that was cost effective and could support four processors and 16 GB memory, necessary to support BSH-specific customizations. The Sun Fire V440 running the Solaris 9 operating system was the best choice, beating out competitive Linux-based systems. The longer projected life of the 17 Sun Fire V440 servers is expected to save BSH about ä765,000 (US$900,000). The central instance of mySAP.com runs on a Sun Enterprise 15K server.