Success Story Siemens IT Solutions and Services …

Success Story




Siemens IT Solutions
and Services
                                                                                                   Siemens IT Solutions and Services
As a leading IT services provider, Siemens IT                                                      at a glance:
Solutions and Services wished to minimise its                                                      Internationally leading provider of

operational costs, while continuing to provide                                                     IT solutions and services


customers with high-performance, scalable                                                              Industry:

solutions. With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server,
                                         ®
                                                                                                       IT Services, Diversified Manufacturing
                                                                                                       Location:
the company reduced its total cost of ownership                                                        Germany

by 25 percent and can offer its customers more                                                         Solutions:
                                                                                                       SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
competitive pricing for services.                                                                      Results:
                                                                                                   ­   Reduced total cost of ownership by
Overview                                           Solution                                            25 percent
Siemens IT Solutions and Services is an            Siemens considered moving its operating         ­   Provides SAP systems on Linux for one
internationally leading provider of IT solutions   system for SAP applications from a UNIX             of the world's largest SAP customers
and services. The company has 43,000               platform to Microsoft* Windows*, but was        ­   Improved performance for 130,000
employees and posts annual worldwide               concerned about the integration issues              users running SAP applications
sales of more than $6.4 billion USD.               with its UNIX database platform. In 2001,       ­   Faster application delivery with a
                                                   Siemens, Fujitsu-Siemens and Oracle jointly         flexible architecture
Challenge                                          performed a proof of concept by achieving
Siemens IT Solutions and Services supports         a new world record for concurrent users
the SAP* systems for Siemens AG, one of            for the SAP Sales and Distribution (SD)         "A key factor in our decision
the largest SAP customers in the world,            benchmark. The configuration consisted          was the consistent, long-term
as well as a variety of outside clients.           of a UNIX-based Primepower 2000 server          relationship between Novell
In its business of providing dynamic data          and 160 Linux-based application servers.        and SAP SAP applications
                                                                                                            .
centres, Siemens IT Solutions and Services         Siemens and its partners had been able to       run seamlessly on SUSE Linux
wished to reduce the costs of running SAP          achieve 23,000 concurrent SAP SD users.         Enterprise Server, and we get
applications on a UNIX* infrastructure.                                                            excellent technical support
The company's increasing hardware and              The company also found during this proof        from Novell."
maintenance costs were making it difficult         of concept that Linux* could substitute UNIX
to implement cost-effective solutions for          as SAP application servers at 40 percent        Michael Gebauer
its customers.                                     of the investment cost of a comparable          Solution Architect
                                                   UNIX-only configuration. As a result,           Siemens IT Solutions and Services
In addition, customers increasingly want           Siemens selected SUSE Linux Enterprise
scalable solutions that allow them to pay          Server to run as SAP application servers
only for the capacity they use. Moving to          on Intel-based servers.
a more flexible architecture would allow
Siemens to give customers exactly what             "A key factor in our decision was the consis-
they need, when they need it, while reducing       tent, long-term relationship between Novell
its overall operational costs.                     and SAP said Michael Gebauer, solution
                                                            ,"
                               "Linux gives us a reliable platform for business software. As a data
                             centre provider, customers depend on us to deliver high performance
                                 solutions. We can implement solutions faster and less costly with
                                           SUSE Linux Enterprise Server than we could with UNIX."

                                                                                                                       Michael Gebauer
                                                                                                                         Solution Architect
                                                                                                        Siemens IT Solutions and Services       www.novell.com




architect for Siemens IT Solutions and                                              use VMware* ESX and Virtuozzo to create
Services. "SAP applications run seamlessly                                          virtual servers on a single Linux machine.
on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and we                                             The company is also evaluating Xen* virtual-              Contact your local Novell ®



get excellent technical support from Novell."                                       isation technology. With fewer machines to                Solutions Provider, or call
                                                                                                                                              Novell at:
                                                                                    administer, the company can further reduce
Siemens now runs more than 300 business-                                            its hardware and maintenance costs.                       (31) 10 2864300
critical SAP systems and 130,000 named                                                                                                        (31) 10 2864333 Facsimile
accounts on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.                                           SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has been a
The company also runs many Web appli-                                               standard operating platform for Siemens                   For More Information:
cations, Web servers and Oracle* database                                           since 1999 and works well with its other UNIX             To read more customer
                                                                                                                                              success stories, visit:
servers on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for                                         and Microsoft Windows systems. Moving
                                                                                                                                              www.novell.com/success
Siemens AG and its associated businesses,                                           forward, the company plans to continue
as well as a variety of outside clients.                                            moving more of its UNIX database servers                  Novell, EMEA
                                                                                    to Linux.                                                 Novell House
"SUSE Linux Enterprise Server was an                                                                                                          1 Arlington Square
easy transition for our UNIX-trained IT staff,"                                     Results                                                   Downshire Way
                                                                                                                                              Bracknell, Berkshire
said Gebauer. "We now benefit from having                                           Moving to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
                                                                                                                                              RG12 1WA
a common skill set. The popularity of Linux                                         has given Siemens a flexible application                  United Kingdom
also makes it easier to hire new staff already                                      architecture that has reduced its total cost              Tel: (44) 1344 724000
familiar with it."                                                                  of ownership by 25 percent. The company                   Fax: (44) 1344 724001
                                                                                    estimates that a similar UNIX investment                  www.novell.com/emea/
Siemens runs SUSE Linux Enterprise Server                                           would have cost three times more.
                                                                                                                                              Novell, Inc.
on a combination of Fujitsu-Siemens*, Dell*
                                                                                                                                              404 Wyman Street
and HP* Compaq* servers. Using Intel-                                               With significant cost reductions, Siemens can             Waltham, MA 02451 USA
based hardware, the company can support                                             better support the extensive SAP systems
its services at a fraction of the cost of its                                       for Siemens AG and other customers. The
previous UNIX systems. The flexible archi-                                          company can also pass on savings to its
tecture also allows Siemens to quickly                                              customers with scalable solutions that offer
implement new solutions for its customers.                                          increased performance. Moving forward,
                                                                                    virtualisation will allow Siemens to increase
"Substituting our big UNIX servers with                                             the load on its servers, improve flexibility
Intel-based servers allows us to give our                                           and reduce the number of physical servers.
customers much more scalable solutions,"
said Gebauer. "We can give customers                                                "Novell has helped us achieve our goals to
exactly what they need and they are already                                         reduce overall spending and to offer more
realising cost savings as a result."                                                services to our customers," said Gebauer.
                                                                                    "Customers want better prices every year.
The next step to increase flexibility is the                                        By helping to reduce our internal costs,
virtualisation of services, where Siemens will                                      Novell helps us remain competitive."




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