Uptime. All the time.
Concorde Reisemobile
C A S E S T U D Y
Uptime assurance keeps motorhome production moving ahead
QUICK FACTS
SOLUTION PROFILE• Uptime assurance supports enterprise
resource planning (ERP), CAD file server, and email
• Reduces risk for critical business resources and processes
• High-availability solution pays for itself withsimple management
PRODUCTS• Stratus Avance® high-availability software• Industry-standard x86 servers• Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 R2
operating system• Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 R2 database • Microsoft® Exchange
SERVICES • Avance Software Support Services “ Our investment in Stratus Avance software
has already paid for itself because of the lack of extra effort we would have faced with othertechnologies.”
Roland EichkornIT ManagerConcorde Reisemobile
Business situationConcorde Reisemobile GmbH is passionateabout designing and building motorhomes. Thecompany’s luxury caravans let adventurers takethe comforts of home wherever they roam —some models even have a garage for a smallcar or motorcycle.
To help meet increasing demand for these premium motor caravans, Concorde decidedto revamp its IT operations. The company considered every aspect of IT in the overhaul,from hardware and software infrastructure, todata privacy and security, to how IT aligns withthe firm’s legal obligations.
Uptime. All the time.
Stronger risk management was an importantaspect of the IT upgrade. One key asset issome 400,000 computer-aided design (CAD)drawings that are the core of the company’sintellectual property. Concorde also planned toimplement a new enterprise resource planning(ERP) system, and wanted to assure uptime forits Microsoft Exchange email communications.
Roland Eichkorn, IT manager for ConcordeReisemobile, saw high availability as an essential aspect of the new technology infrastructure. If downtime were to affect manufacturing operations at the plant inGermany’s Franconia region, the interruptioncould be costly. The plant makes deluxemotorhomes that often sell for 100,000 eurosor more.
Business objectivesThe company’s IT system house, SIT Solutionsof Adelsdorf, recommended Stratus Avancehigh-availability software to satisfy Concorde’sincreased reliability requirement.
Bernhard Schlögel, CEO of SIT Solutions, said,“Before this, we used to integrate virtualizationsoftware with a dedicated SAN [storage areanetwork]. We’d been looking for a long time fora solution that is redundant, easy to manage,and economical. We found it in Stratus Avance software.”
"Since we were reevaluating the whole IT infrastructure anyway, it was easy to look atnew concepts,” Eichkorn related. “The StratusAvance solution fit our need for uptime assurance.”
Avance uptime assurance offered advantagesthat were in line with Concorde’s business andtechnical objectives: ■ Around-the-clock access to critical business
applications■ High availability for standard x86 servers■ Integrated virtualization■ Ease of operation, with automatic error
detection and fault management■ Simple installation and maintenance
In addition to meeting the technical and highreliability requirements for the new IT infrastruc-ture, Avance software proved to be affordable."With Stratus Avance software, we were ableto propose a high-availability solution that fitwell within the budget of an SMB [small andmedium business] customer," said Schlögel.
Avance HA passes test flawlesslyAvance software turns industry-standard x86servers into a highly reliable, very affordablesolution that ensures uninterrupted uptime.Built-in predictive features to identify, report,and handle faults before they cause applicationoutages, data loss, or user disconnects.
The Avance software also enables automaticresource sharing across the server pair.Applications automatically ride through mosthardware and software problems, includingdisk and network subsystem failure.
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“ Our project manager used his iPad to install a new Windows 2008 Server in the Avance environment while traveling to a meeting on the train. That’s the way we want to work — management anytime and anywhere.” ”
Bernhard SchlögelCEOSIT Solutions
Uptime. All the time.
Upon installing the Stratus Avance solution,Concorde decided to simulate a server failure.The Avance software allowed the secondaryserver to immediately take over for the primaryserver. An error message popping up was theonly sign that anything was out of the ordinary.When the primary server was restored to operation, the Avance software automaticallysynchronized the two servers.
Smooth deployment in just two hoursMigrating to new x86 server hardware andStratus Avance high availability was so non-disruptive that users hardly noticed thechange. Concorde’s IT staff and SIT Solutionscarried out the entire implementation processin about two hours.
“The reason for the fast project turnaround waspredominantly the pre-installation and preparation that Stratus built into Avance software. We simply migrated our existingphysical environment into a virtual server environment,”explained Eichkorn. “This savestime and effort.”
Concorde’s system consists of two physicalservers, One virtual instance of Avance software runs Microsoft Exchange. Anotherinstance of Avance software supports the SQL Server database and Windows domain controller that act as the file server for thecompany’s 70 CAD workstations.
Simple management brings fast paybackThe Avance real-time dual-server architectureensures that applications operate uninterrupted, with no data loss, even if aphysical server fails. This automatic, preemptive fault management helps reduce IT labor costs as well as expenses that wouldbe associated with data recovery.
“Our investment in Stratus Avance softwarehas already paid for itself because of the lackof extra effort we would have faced with othertechnologies,” stated Eichkorn. “Avance soft-ware manages itself and saves ConcordeReisemobile the need to dedicate a resourceto manage the high-availability solution. Thisalso saves euros and cents.”
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“ The reason for the fast projectturnaround was predominantly thepre-installation and preparationthat Stratus built into Avance software. We simply migrated ourexisting physical environment intoa virtual server environment.”
Roland EichkornIT ManagerConcorde Reisemobile
AVANCE HA SOFTWARE
Print ServWIN
DBLINUX
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X86X86
Eichkorn also appreciates that the Avancedashboard provides an “ideal” view of systemresources that displays utilization and operationinformation about the virtual machines.
SIT Solutions likewise gives Avance softwarehigh marks for being easy to use and manage.Noted Schlögel, “Our project manager used his iPad® to install a new Windows 2008 Serverin the Avance environment while traveling to ameeting on the train. That’s the way we wantto work — management anytime, anywhere.”
Business impactConcorde is already considering expanding itsuse of Avance high availability to other applica-tions that need to be resilient. "Stratus Avanceensures better protection against outages in aproduction environment. That lets IT do its partto ensure mission-critical processes are up andrunning," Eichkorn noted.
The Stratus Avance solution has also morethan met expectations for SIT Solutions — andnot only at Concorde Reisemobile. SaidSchlögel, “We’ve seen that Stratus Avancesoftware improves availability, takes less effortto maintain, and saves money. Before we usedto integrate other high availability solutions forour customers. Now we prefer Stratus.”
About StratusStratus delivers uptime assurance for the applications its customers depend on most for their success. With its resilient software andhardware, backed by proactive availability management services, Stratus products helpto save lives and to protect the business andreputations of companies, institutions, andgovernments the world over.
To learn more about worry-free computing, visit www.stratus.com
“ We’ve seen that Stratus Avance software improvesavailability, takes less effort to maintain, and savesmoney. Before we used to integrate other high-availabil-ity solutions for our customers. Now we prefer Stratus.”
Bernhard SchlögelCEOSIT Solutions
Stratus, Stratus Avance, and the Stratus Technologies logo are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks ortrademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries/regions.iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
X1427-B © 2011-2012 Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. All rights reserved. www.stratus.com
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