Successful roll out – Future-proof IT at Gesundwerk Bad Salzuflen.

Gesundwerk Bad Salzuflen GmbH – Successful roll out – Future-proof IT at Gesundwerk Bad Salzuflen.

Formerly state-owned Salzuflen baths had been offering a broad range of therapeutic treatments, physiotherapy and preventive care for over a century. Following a reorganisation, the newly independent Gesundwerk Bad Salzuflen GmbH required a new, redundant and cost-efficient IT infrastructure with high availability to keep operations running smoothly. Working on a tight schedule, Bechtle built this infrastructure from scratch with around a dozen virtual servers. A traditional 3-tier architecture with HPE ProLiant servers, Synology storage and VMware, it secures Gesundwerk’s high standard of quality into the future while also saving costs. “Bechtle managed the whole project in a very professional manner and demonstrated impressive expertise across the board. Despite the time crunch and complex requirements, everything was delivered on time and in budget.

Project details.

Services

Professional Services
Virtualization

Industry

Public sector

Manufacturer

Microsoft, HPE, Synology

Company size

< 250 employees

Challenge.

Located in the picturesque setting of the Teutoburg forest, the Gesundwerk Bad Salzuflen health centre (formerly Vitalzentrum Bad Salzuflen) is steeped in tradition. Harnessing the healing effects of local brine deposits, the baths play an integral role in the health care of the region’s people and its guests, with medical spa treatments, physiotherapy, modern health courses and coaching making up just a part of its expansive offering. In mid-2024, Gesundwerk Bad Salzuflen became an independent entity operating under a new name. Until that point, its IT infrastructure was run by the Salzuflen baths itself, but with the transfer from state to municipal-owned facilities, the newly founded Gesundwerk required its own infrastructure—and within a matter of weeks, no less. What the baths needed was a redundant high-availability solution that would guarantee undisrupted service also in the event of hardware disruptions, with some ten to 15 virtual servers to ensure reliable failover, and all while sticking to a strict budget. The IT landscape needed to be ready to kick in on the very day the new company came into being without impacting ongoing business operations. Plus, once it became municipal, Gesundwerk wanted to maximise the hardware deployed at the municipal utilities organisation in order to save costs while ensuring full performance and reliability of the new solution. However, since the hardware had to be migrated in an empty state, it could not be made available until just a few weeks before the big day.

Bechtle managed the whole project in a very professional manner, demonstrating impressive expertise across the board. Despite the time crunch and complex requirements, everything was delivered on time and in budget. We also very much appreciated having a central contact person who helped us navigate the entire process. We now have a future-proof IT infrastructure in place that is perfectly tailored to our specific needs.

Daniel Hobein, Team Lead IT Service and IT Organisation/CISO, Stadtwerke Bad Salzuflen GmbH

Solution.

A long-standing IT partner of both Bad Salzuflen’s municipal utilities and Gesundwerk, Bechtle was already familiar with the baths’ requirements, as well as the utility organisation’s hardware portfolio. Once the latter had received its brand new IT environment, Bechtle redeployed three of its HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 servers at Gesundwerk to replace the old landscape. They delivered sufficient performance for the planned virtual machines while allowing efficient use of resources already at the city’s disposal. To ensure redundancy, Bechtle and Gesundwerk decided to implement a traditional 3-tier architecture in place of the old virtual solution. In this way, Gesundwerk’s IT retains its high availability and flexibility, while saving licensing costs for what was previously software-defined storage. For fast and secure shared data storage, Bechtle chose Synology SC3200 as an affordable SAN (storage area network) that was tailored to Gesundwerk’s requirements. This combination ensures a robust and failsafe environment and consistent data availability at all times. In addition, Bechtle implemented VMware Essential Plus with an ESXi hypervisor on the servers so the virtual machines could be managed centrally via vCenter, which was also set up by Bechtle. In the event a server goes down, automatic failover to another machine makes sure operations remain up and running, which is critical for the organisation’s ongoing health spa business. Bechtle also installed Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 to keep data local, which was another important requirement. Script-based user account generation using lists provided by Gesundwerk allowed for a fast and error-free configuration. Additional virtual servers were made available to run specific applications, and templates created by Bechtle also allow Gesundwerk to quickly create further virtual servers as required. In a final step, the servers underwent certification to guarantee the security and integrity of the new IT environment.

Business benefits.

Bechtle delivered the new IT environment on time to coincide with the with the reorganisation of Gesundwerk Bald Salzuflen. The redundant, three-tier architecture with automatic failover keeps operations up and running even when a server becomes unavailable. With powerful HPE ProLiant servers and secure Synology storage, the organisation benefits from a resilient, cost-efficient and independent IT environment. Central management via VMware ensures streamlined administration, and a script makes it easy to quickly add new users. Gesundwerk’s IT staff also benefit from flexible templates allowing them to respond fast to changing requirements, as well as an all new IT infrastructure that is ready for the growing demands placed on the health facility. Maintenance can also be conducted during operations, which is particularly important to ensure health treatments and other services can be provided in a timely manner.