• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Power8 Upgrade Yields Processing Dividends for Growing SAP Shop

    October 21, 2015 Alex Woodie

    One of the great things about the IBM i platform is how it grows and adapts to the companies that use it. Businesses can start with a small Power Systems server, and as the scale of their operations grows over the course of years, they can expand their IBM i processing footprints in a relatively easy manner. This pattern has played out time and time again, and the latest to use it is the German distributor HANSA-FLEX.

    Based in Bremen, Germany, HANSA-FLEX is one of Europe’s top distributors of hydraulic parts. The $450 million company maintains a catalog of 95,000 hydraulic parts, such as pumps, fittings, clamps, and hose mounts that are critical across a number of industries. HANSA-FLEX strives to ensure delivery of those parts within 24 hours of a customer order through its FLEXXPRESS fleet of delivery vehicles dispatched from 393 branches in 36 countries.

    This business model has been successful for HANSA-FLEX, and as a result it’s been expanding in recent years. However, with that growth has come challenges for the IT department tasked with maintaining the SAP applications that automate its business processes.

    “Over seven years of business growth, our production database has tripled in size to almost 9 TB, and performance was beginning to suffer,” HANSA-FLEX head of IT Jürgen Kaemena says in an IBM case study. “To minimize disruption and improve and maintain high levels of customer service, we had to create a more flexible environment that would support our growth.”

    The company decided to upgrade the hardware underlying its SAP environment, which consisted of SAP ERP, Human Capital Management, Global Trade Services, Business Warehouse, Process Orchestration, Process Integration, and NetWeaver MDM applications. The company decided to deploy two IBM Power System S824 servers running IBM i 7.2 to run the applications, and a combination of FlashSystem 840, Storwize V7000, and IBM SAN96B-5 for the storage layer.

    “Our previous server landscape, which was based on larger, monolithic servers, needed regular upgrades, which could lead to downtime,” said Thomas Becker, team manager SAP basis and infrastructure at the distributor. “Now we have a more flexible, modular configuration, where we can expand capacity as needed with minimal impact on our 12 production systems.”

    The combination of the powerful Power8-based servers along with the virtualized storage infrastructure has had a big impact on the performance of HANSA-FLEX’s production applications.

    According to Becker, response times improved by 56 percent, background tasks improved 55 percent, and database processing jumped by 70 percent. Meanwhile, an enhancement to the IBM i Java environment “speeds up all our SAP applications noticeably from the point of view of the end users,” he says.

    “With help from BLUE STEC, we completed the upgrade to IBM i 7.2 on the IBM Power 8 system without issues,” Kaemena said. “Our SAP applications have been running very reliably since the upgrade and performance has improved significantly.”

    RELATED STORIES

    Five IBM i Facts That Will Surprise Your CIO

    Is There No Midrange In The IBM i Midrange?

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags:

    Sponsored by
    Rocket Software

    Two Steps Forward, No Steps Back

    For over 35 years, Rocket Software’s solutions have empowered businesses to modernize their infrastructure, unlock data value, and drive transformation – all while ensuring modernization without disruption.

    LEARN MORE

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Sponsored Links

    LaserVault:  Webinar → R.I.P. TAPE BACKUPS. Thursday, 10/22, 2pm EST
    HelpSystems:  How do you use IBM i? Your peers want to know! Take the survey >
    Rocket Software:  Mobile app development and deployment solution for IBM i. Download FREE trial!

    DB2 for i 7.1 TR10 and i 7.2 TR2 Features, Part 2 Power Systems Shows Growth Again For Big Blue

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Volume 25, Number 53 -- October 21, 2015
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

Profound Logic Software
HelpSystems
BCD Software
Computer Keyes
LaserVault

Table of Contents

  • Accur8 Takes Aim at Data Virtualization Opportunity
  • IBM Offers Tech Preview for iASP-Based HyperSwap
  • PowerTech Adds Centralized Management for Exit Points Security
  • Guardium Stands Tall Over DB2 on i Data
  • Power8 Upgrade Yields Processing Dividends for Growing SAP Shop

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
  • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
  • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
  • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25
  • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
  • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
  • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
  • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle