IT
Department Spun off
Howaldtswerke - Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) in Kiel has been
in the business of building ships for 160 years. Today, it
is the largest shipyard in Germany - an enterprise which constructs
both merchant navy vessels such as cruise ships, ferries and
container ships, and naval vessels such as submarines, frigates
and corvettes. HDW is one of Europe's most modern shipyards
and employs around 3,200 staff in Kiel.
Managing System Diversity
HDW took the decision as early as the 1970s to spin off its
IT department into a separate company, NIS - Norddeutsche
Informations-Systeme GmbH. In HDW's data centre today client/server
applications are run on a variety of hardware and operating
system platforms. More specifically, these include VMS systems
for CAD-based ship planning and development, SUN systems for
inventory management, SAP R/3 for business processes, PC systems
for file and print services and a number of other applications.
"This variety of different hardware platforms", recalls Malte
Griem, "gave us quite a few headaches in the past, particularly
the necessity to continually provide sufficient disk storage
capacity."
System heterogeneity was one of the main reasons why HDW adopted
a Storage Area Network plan. A further reason was the problem
of backup. Malte Griem: "We have around 40 NT servers, 15 Novell
and 20 UNIX servers to back up, all more or less local. Because
of the large data volumes involved, backups across the network
are only possible to a limited extent." The staff in charge
were looking to simplify the process with a SAN, "to implement
centralised storage and backup solutions that can be used by
all systems and which function more or less automatically."
Around 350 GB of the centralised disk capacity is available
for the UNIX servers, and around 400 GB is dedicated to the
PC server environment. The VMS systems in the computer centre
are not included in the SAN solution because, as Malte Griem
explains, "the VMS applications will soon be replaced by other
platforms".
Selecting the Right Partner
Just one point of contact
What was needed was a solution with initially 200 GB of hard
disk storage each for NT and UNIX, connected to four UNIX
and to four NT systems and a backup system configured to meet
these storage requirements and able to carry out a full backup
within eight hours.
A number of vendors were given these specifications to tender
- with the proviso that all equipment was to be provided by
a single supplier. "The primary reason for this was the issue
of Fibre Channel technology standardisation which has still
not been resolved within the fibre channel community." A further
key criterion in the decision-making process was that the disk
subsystem had to support capacity upgrades up to a massive 6
TB.
In addition, HDW/NIS placed particular emphasis on a Fibre Channel
switched fabric solution. Says Malte Griem: "We needed full
FC bandwidth across all connections in our data centre. We did
not want the hub solutions suggested by a number of suppliers.
COMPAREX was the only systems integrator able to provide a complete
switched fabric solution for the required configuration from
a single source. That's why we chose COMPAREX."
Vast Volumes of Data
The SAN was first implemented with two test systems. "We
are now in the process of migrating all of our servers. The
problem with a system like this is the large volume of data
involved. We needed a little more time than was originally
anticipated to solve this particular problem." comments the
project leader. After the system has gone live, backups will
be performed centrally.
Virtually Automated Operations
"At the moment," reports Malte Griem proudly, "we are in
a situation where we can connect the attached servers to a
single centralised storage pool that can also be flexibly
managed. The storage capacities needed are on a single system
exploiting state-of-the-art technology to guarantee the highest
availability." As a further step towards centralised backup,
Malte Griem anticipates that "we will implement a central
automated tape library allowing all the servers in the switched
fabric to be backed up practically operator-free."
Long-Term Partnership
Malte Griem has this to say about the partnership with COMPAREX:
"The link with COMPAREX was forged in the days of mainframes,
and this link has now been revitalised. Of course, the SAN
technology used today makes different demands on the sales
and service staff. But we value the support provided by COMPAREX.
The reaction times are fast, the distances short and the solutions
they provide are highly satisfactory."
Howaldtswerke - Deutsche Werft AG
(Financial year 1998/99)
Turnover: DM 1.236 billion
Merchant shipbuilding: DM 406 million
(Naval shipbuilding: DM 790 million
Ship repairs: DM 19 million
Other production: DM 21 million)
Order books: DM 6.327 billion
No.of Employees: 3,192
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