On a roll to successSimple, resilient, scalable Dell storage solution helps intralogistics manufacturer save one day of administration a week

Manufacturers rely on real-time data to streamline critical

processes and minimise operational costs. This is the

case at ALFOTEC, a leading German provider of complete

material handling solutions and conveyor systems for

optimisation of intralogistic processes.

Solutions:•   Backup, recovery and archiving•   Data consolidation and 

management •   Storage consolidation •   Virtualization

Customer profileCompany: ALFOTEC GmbHIndustry: Manufacturing & LogisticsCountry: GermanyFounded: 1999Employees: 200Website: www.alfotec.eu

ChallengeALFOTEC needed a more cost effective and less complex solution to meet growing storage and management requirements.

SolutionDell helped ALFOTEC deploy a cost-effective, scalable server, storage and backup solution with industry-leading support.

Benefits • Additional storage capacity

and virtual servers provisioned in minutes

• Automated, labour-saving tools for storage management

• Physical servers reduced from 18 to six, reducing energy consumption by a third

• Automated backup saves €10,000 a year

• All-inclusive price with no need for additional licences in the future

As a result of rapid growth, the ALFOTEC IT system could no longer process and store the vast volumes of data required to support its production processes. Initially, the company tried to address the issue by buying additional servers and storage devices, but this approach increased costs and complexity.

Markus Hacklaender, Head of IT at ALFOTEC, says: “By adding hardware, we just made matters worse. We often had to reconfigure servers and shuffle hardware devices around to provision storage – requiring constant physical intervention. As an additional challenge, we had distributed file servers, which made management extremely inefficient.”

The backup process at ALFOTEC was also challenging. “Due to the sheer complexity of our IT environment, backup processes were extremely slow and unreliable. We complete our backups overnight and found that there just wasn’t enough time to finish them,” says Hacklaender.

A fit-for-purpose, cost-effective Dell solution 

To simplify IT, reduce management and lower costs, ALFOTEC wanted to centralise storage across the

organisation. At a Dell event, representatives from ALFOTEC learned about the features and benefits of Dell EqualLogic PS series storage area networks (SANs) and decided to invest in the technology.

Like most medium-sized businesses, ALFOTEC IT budgets are subject to strict limitations and the company needs to generate maximum returns on its technology investments. “While many SAN solutions are expensive and require investment in additional management tools, EqualLogic delivers everything we

How it works Services• Dell ProSupport for IT

– Mission Critical option

Hardware• Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers

• Dell EqualLogic PS5000XV/PS5000E storage area networks

Software• VMware® vSphere™ 4 server

software

• Auto Replication

• Auto Snapshot Manager

• Production View Manager

• Dell OpenManage™ systems management

need, including centralised management tools and licences out-of-the-box at a low, all-inclusive price. We knew from the start that EqualLogic was the best and most cost-effective storage solution for us, and we immediately bought two units,” he adds.

Automated backup ensures continuity and reduces costs

To ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster, local Dell partner wp.DATA Kommunikations GmbH installed a Dell EqualLogic PS5000XV SAN with serial attached small computer system interface (SAS) drives at ALFOTEC headquarters in Wermelskirchen, and an EqualLogic PS5000E SAN with drives

at a remote site. Data is frequently and automatically backed up to the second site using the Auto Snapshot feature. This eliminates the time and work required to back up data overnight and ensures continuity for critical business processes in the event of an emergency

“Backups are conducted by Production View Manager based on continuous system snapshots,” says Hacklaender. “This is just one of the tools that the Dell EqualLogic solution delivers as standard to automate our key storage processes, reduce management workloads and dramatically cut the backup window,” he adds.

“ Previously, we used a partner to help us restore data, which cost more than €10,000 a year, whereas we now restore data from the backup SAN ourselves at no cost.”Markus Hacklaender, Head of IT, ALFOTEC

Markus Hacklaender, Head of IT, ALFOTEC

Another key feature of Dell EqualLogic – Auto Snapshot Manager – is helping ALFOTEC reduce the time and cost associated with restoring data from the backup environment.

“Because Auto Snapshot Manager restores data at the application level, it makes the process much faster and less labour intensive,” says Hacklaender. “Previously, we used a partner to help us restore data, which cost more than €10,000 a year, whereas we now restore data from the backup SAN ourselves at no cost whatsoever.”

Server consolidation  and virtualization

To optimise and simplify its IT environment, ALFOTEC implemented an innovative server virtualization solution – reducing the size of its hardware estate from 18 machines to just six. “We chose to build the virtualized server environment using existing Dell PowerEdge servers and VMware vSphere 4 server software,” says Hacklaender. “Dell was the obvious choice because its virtualization solution enables us to meet our growing processing requirements in the most cost effective way possible.”

The ALFOTEC VMware cluster supports applications on 40 virtualized servers in an environment that’s easy to manage

and maintain. The IT team can quickly add virtualized servers to run pilot projects and support new applications in the live environment. Hacklaender says: “We can make servers available extremely quickly if our developers need a new machine or need to test something. We can also clone a server or database from our EqualLogic SAN within one or two minutes to streamline development work, which was impossible before.”

Simple, centralised storage management saves one day  a week

ALFOTEC deployed Dell OpenManage™ systems management to reduce administration and deliver significant time savings for the IT team. “We found it extremely easy to begin working with Dell OpenManage, and we can now configure and manage our EqualLogic SANs from a single, centralised console,” says Hacklaender. “Dell OpenManage, combined with the management tools provided with Dell EqualLogic storage arrays, save us at least a day a week in manual administration time.”

OpenManage systems management monitors the performance of the ALFOTEC infrastructure on an ongoing

basis, supporting more effective troubleshooting and maintenance. In addition, it is being used to optimise utilisation of storage resources across the network, maximising the life cycle of the EqualLogic solution.

By automating routine management tasks, OpenManage systems management enables the IT team to focus on strategic projects – and, particularly, on developing business applications. Hacklaender says: “Our administrative workload had become so great that at one point we considered outsourcing. We wouldn’t dream of doing that now we have access to Dell OpenManage and the full range of intuitive EqualLogic SAN tools.”

Return on investment  in five years

The EqualLogic PS series solution offers an extremely low total cost of ownership. It uses iSCSI to connect to the existing ALFOTEC network, which means there was no need to invest in an additional fibre-channel network for storage. Through centralisation of storage resources, the solution also reduces energy consumption by up to a third.

“ Our administrative workload had become so great that at one point we considered outsourcing. We wouldn’t dream of doing that now.” Markus Hacklaender, Head of IT, ALFOTEC

“The Dell EqualLogic PS series SANs were affordable and everything we needed was included based on a single price. Because we’ve been able to eliminate distributed storage devices from our network, EqualLogic has cut management costs and helped us save around a third on our energy bill,” says Hacklaender. “The low total cost of ownership offered by the Dell EqualLogic PS solution will help us achieve 100 per cent return on our technology investment within just five years.”

Enterprise-grade scalability

Dell EqualLogic incorporates virtualization technology that improves utilisation of storage area networks and minimises hardware requirements and costs. “Virtualization built into EqualLogic means we can provision storage quickly and easily with no need to invest in additional physical hardware devices,” says Hacklaender. “If we should ever run out of capacity – which won’t be in the foreseeable future – we can simply plug additional arrays into EqualLogic and configure them with a few clicks of a mouse.”

Support for critical processes  with Dell ProSupport for IT 

ALFOTEC has protected its investment in Dell EqualLogic by signing a three-year agreement for Dell ProSupport for IT with Mission Critical option. Under the terms of this contract, Dell professionals provide four-hour, on-site support in the event of a service issue. Hacklaender says: “Our Dell EqualLogic solution supports mission-critical processes and we need it to be available 24/7. Dell ProSupport ensures that we can deliver the best service to our end users and maximise productivity across the business.”

For more information go to: dell.com/casestudies/emea and dell.de/casestudies

“ Our Dell EqualLogic solution supports mission-critical processes and we need it to be available 24/7. Dell ProSupport ensures that we can deliver the best service to our end users and maximise productivity across the business.”Markus Hacklaender, Head of IT, ALFOTEC

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© May 2010, Dell Inc. Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc. This case study is for informational purposes only.

dell makes no warranties, express or implied, in this case study. Reference number: 10008211