New SVC Solution.
The healthcare provider Galenica already implemented a platform-independent virtualisation with an SVC solution a few years ago. In addition to the advantage of not having a vendor lock-in, the SVC allows for uninterrupted data migration and offers the possibility of adapting the underlying storage to the needs of the business at any time. Due to the satisfaction with the storage virtualisation through the SVC and the associated guarantee of the greatest possible business continuity, this architecture should definitely be retained.
Bechtle was able to beat the competition with its offer of a new IBM SVC environment. On the one hand, because the company is a proven IBM Business Partner, has the highest level of expertise in the IBM storage environment - and can advise and support the customer throughout all phases of the “Plan Build Run” project. On the other hand, Bechtle and Galenica have enjoyed a trusting partnership for many years. A total of four IBM SVC Storage Engine models and four FS900 flash memories are now in use. The new IBM storage systems are extremely space-saving, advantageous in terms of maintenance costs and offer more performance thanks to the latest flash technology.
The new SVC architecture in combination with the flash systems is characterised by massively increased performance. It is an enterprise-class storage system and supports large, mission-critical workloads.
IBM Flashcore technology now offers the possibility of data compression at the hardware level, which no longer results in any loss of speed. This means that even more hardware capacity can be benefited from. This is unique and makes this solution very efficient and ultimately also cost-effective, since less electricity and air-conditioning costs are incurred and the space requirement is minimal (Green IT).
Bechtle Remote Operations Center (ROC).
An IT systems engineer who suddenly announced his early retirement prompted Galenica to find a new solution for the maintenance of the storage systems as quickly as possible. There were few specialists on the market and 24x7 operational support had to be ensured. Galenica was well positioned for day-to-day operations, but had no on-call organisation. “If there was a fire, the “best effort” method was used,” explains Reto Wyss. Bechtle therefore offered to outsource the support to its in-house Remote Operations Centre (ROC), and the order was placed. Apart from the fact that the Bechtle ROC was convincing with its range of services, it also has the size to take over the support of further operational components in the future, if necessary.
With Bechtle ROC Support, Galenica was now able to create the necessary security, and after only three months of onboarding, the ROC had already taken over the first operational activities.
The process on Bechtle’s part started with the onboarding of the ROC employees responsible for Galenica. Five to six were assigned to the healthcare provider, after which they were admitted to Galenica with the corresponding accounts and VPN connections. Afterwards, various online workshops were held to start the know-how transfer: design, setup, specifics regarding the Galenica infrastructure, as well as access to the Galenica Wiki and internal documentation. This resulted in the operating manual with responsibilities, hand-overs in the case of holiday replacements etc.
“The onboarding of the employees and the know-how transfer with the ROC team worked very well. The connection of the Bechtle infrastructure to the Galenica infrastructure via VPN tunnel was established very quickly. Within a very short time, the two NAGIOS monitoring systems from Galenica and the Bechtle ROC could be coupled to take over autonomous tasks,” Reto Wyss concludes.
We have already had very positive experiences with IBM infrastructure in the past. With Bechtle, we have a professional partner who submits extremely fair offers and competently advises and supports us throughout all phases of a project. We appreciate the several years of trusting, friendly and respectful cooperation at eye level and with the required, desired transparency.
Bechtle ROC Service-Portfolio.
- Remote Managed Services for the entire IT infrastructure
- From simple system monitoring (5x8 or 7x24) to complex full- managed services to complex full-managed services including tools for monitoring, reporting and performance analyses
- Cloud management: IBM Cloud, MFA, AWS, GCP
- Network: Cisco, Meraki, extreme Networks
- Storage: IBM, NetApp, Dell EMC
- Operating systems & virtualisation: Linux, Windows, AIX, z/OS
- Containerisation: Container orchestration and automation
- Backup/Restore: IBM Spectrum Protect, Symantec NetBackup, Veeam
- Middleware, databases: IBM WAS, DB2, Oracle, Informix, MySQL
- Communication: Avaya Contact Center & Call Management Systems, Cisco Voice & Video Conferencing
- Operating processes structured according to ITIL
- Integrated service delivery management
Partner.
