Tessenderlo Group

Sun Storage Virtualization Solution Boosts Performance of Chemical Giant’s Mission-Critical ERP Systems

Headquartered in Brussels, Tessenderlo Group is a diversified chemicals concern with more than 8,100 employees and 100 branches located in 20 countries. The company’s revenue totaled 2,406 million Euros in 2007 from its three core business groups (chemicals, plastics converting, and specialities). Tessenderlo is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Brussels and is included in that stock exchange’s Next 150 and BEL Mid indexes.

Customer Challenges

Update the hardware platform that supports mission-critical SAP/ERP systems
Increase IT system performance and reliability
Expand data-archiving capabilities
Simplify IT management and reduce maintenance requirements

Solution

Faced with ever growing data archiving needs, the Tessenderlo Group realized the need to upgrade its datacenters to continue to effectively manage and maintain this data while running its mission-critical SAP landscape in a Windows environment. Selecting a comprehensive technology solution from Sun — including Intel Xeon-based blade servers, a variety of StorageTek virtualized storage solutions and Sun services, the Tessenderlo Group has managed to increase uptime and provide 100 percent data availability at a very affordable TCO. Sun systems integration partner ABSI was the project manager and instrumental in the upgrade deployment and rollout of the Windows environment.

Business Results

Cut backup and recovery time in half
Increased server-based performance and throughput by a factor of 2.5
Freed up 30% of a key IT labor resource’s time through automation
Achieved 100% data availability at an affordable total cost of ownership

Products and Services

Story Details

As a major chemical, plastics converting, and specialities supplier to some of the world’s largest manufacturers, Tessenderlo Group depends on efficient ERP systems to successfully manage its material, human, and business resources. For years, Tessenderlo has relied on SAP software supported by HP/Compaq hardware to handle the company’s ERP needs. But in 2007, as a consequence of ongoing business expansion, Tessenderlo faced massive and still-growing requirements for data archiving and system availability. Tessenderlo realized that it had to upgrade its datacenters to more effectively manage the company’s vast data assets and to maintain an efficient SAP landscape.

HP, Dell, IBM, and Sun responded to Tessenderlo’s request for proposals to provide a new high-performance and highly reliable foundation for the company’s SAP ECC6.0 platform, which runs on Windows Server 2003 Enterprise X64 Edition. After reviewing the vendors’ proposals, Tessenderlo chose Sun based on its customer focus, technical expertise, and competitive pricing.

" Sun offered us the responsiveness and flexibility to customize a solution to meet our needs. Pricing was important too, and the total cost of ownership will be very affordable, but Sun’s expertise and quality of the service really made the difference. "

— Joost Rommelaere, Chief Information Officer, Tessenderlo Group

Working with Sun’s integration partner ABSI, Tessenderlo began deploying a new Sun-based storage virtualization solution across its primary and backup datacenters. The solution includes a total of four Sun Blade 6000 chassis with 38 Sun Blade X6250 server modules using 47 quad-core Intel Xeon processors. For data storage, the company chose a Sun StorageTek 9990V storage system with a 51 TB capacity and a Sun StorageTek 9985V storage system with a 33.6 TB capacity. To manage and protect its SAP data, Tessenderlo uses the Sun StorageTek 9900 software, including Basic Operating System and ShadowImage In-System Replication.

Two Sun StorageTek Virtual Tape Libraries Plus 2.0 (VTL Plus) with 160 TB of disk space replaced the previous all-physical tape system, reducing IT administrative overhead. When physical backups are needed, Tessenderlo uses an 86-slot Sun StorageTek SL500 modular library systems with six StorageTek DLT-S4 tape drives. The SAN environment is connected via four Brocade 5000 switches. Sun StorageTek Enterprise Backup Software further automates and simplifies Tessenderlo’s backup processes by supporting VTL integration in the company’s Windows-based environment.

With the new storage virtualization solution, the company has increased datacenter efficiency and storage utilization. It can now take daily data snapshots — complete backups of the SAP landscape — without taking critical production systems offline, and the process is highly automated. “Before, we had one person spending 30 percent of his time on the backup procedure,” says Joost Rommelaere, Chief Information Officer for Tessenderlo Group. “Now, the Sun solution reduces that time to nearly zero.”

Tessenderlo Group also took advantage of comprehensive support, including Sun Enterprise Installation Services to assist with setup and Sun Professional Services to help with system tuning, configuration, and script authoring. Sun Learning Services will soon provide Tessenderlo staff with training on the StorageTek products, and the hardware is backed by SunSpectrum Platinum agreement.

Deployment of the new solution is complete in the company’s primary datacenter and will soon be completed in the backup datacenter. Tessenderlo Group is pleased with the solution’s reliability and operational performance. “Overall throughput is two and half times faster now, and backup and recovery is two times faster,” says Rommelaere. “Plus, we designed the solution to keep 60 percent of the business running in the event of a disaster, but we now think it’s flexible enough to support 100 percent. With results like these, Sun will certainly be a very valid candidate for our other IT projects going forward.”