Redundant storage concept facilitates high availability

Hanseatic Bank GmbH & Co KG, Hamburg, Germany

That which is considered to be an important success factor in the range of services offered by the Hanseatic Bank GmbH & Co KG, turned out to be something of a disadvantage: the bank’s internal IT structure. It is a reference to the diversity. Up to now, this modern private bank which operates close to the market and is headquartered in Hamburg with 30 regional representative offices nationwide, had not only been using different storage concepts with IBM System i, p and Intel for its three platforms in use but, in addition, only had a redundant storage system for System p at its disposal. On the one hand, in order to reduce inherent costs and, on the other, to create an equal high availability for the other two platforms, targeting an upgrade of the existing architecture was something that had been under consideration for some time.
 
The Hamburg-based bank encountered even more problems when the hitherto decentralised data storage in Hamburg was to be centralised, thus requiring rapid disposal of data for the Intel environment. In light of these requirements, the bank contacted FRITZ & MACZIOL. This leading provider of software, systems and services developed a concept with the installation of two high performance IBM DS8100 storage systems as the main focus. Several steps are needed for implementation. Firstly, the i-series is changed from internal to external hard drives. This means that the hard drives are removed from the production machine and SAN adapters are installed. In future, a new i-series CBU Edition will take on the back-up system function with an SAN connection. The two DS4800s are also exchanged for two DS8100s and an additional 4 switches with 32 ports are integrated in the SAN structure.

The project ends with an Intel environment connection using a SAN adapter. Right at the beginning of the planning phase, the benefit achieved resulting from the high availability of all three platforms due to restructuring was the main focus of the Hanseatic Bank. The lower investment costs – also in the case of future hard drive extensions – reflects just as positively as the reduced costs in administration and personnel in the area of storage, based on uniform technology. Moreover, with a minimum lifecycle of four years, high investment protection is guaranteed for the DS8100. The company also considers it another big advantage in having FRITZ & MACZIOL as its support partner for sales and support on site. Flexible and competent reactions in close cooperation with FRITZ & MACZIOL and IBM are therefore guaranteed.

For further information on this topic please contact Ralph Peters, or +49 40 5287 5245

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