Bionorica finds SAP and IBM solutions help grow pharmaceuticals success

auf Deutsch

Bionorica AG is a leading German producer of high-quality pharmaceuticals based on plant extracts. Founded in 1933, Bionorica now employs around 500 people and has annual global revenues of more than €75 million.

When Bionorica’s existing hardware platform for ERP software needed replacing, the company opted to move to a Linux-based platform, to take advantage of the reduced cost of acquisition. Since the company wanted to remain on IBM DB2 Universal Database (DB2 UDB), an IBM server was the logical choice, as Wolfgang Franz, IT Manager, explains:

“Having the database and hardware from a single vendor – IBM – means that we get fast, efficient support, without different vendors blaming each other for problems!”

Bionorica selected two IBM p5 systems, a model 550 for production and a 520 for test and development.

Says Wolfgang Franz, “The logical partition [LPAR] capability of the p5 system was the key factor in our decision, enabling us to run multiple independent systems on the same physical machine. In our opinion, IBM leads the market in this area.”


50 per cent cost reduction
Bionorica is now implementing mySAP ERP software to run under a common Linux platform on POWER5 based p5 systems. The IBM POWER5 processors and the DB2 database offer class-leading performance and advanced virtualization capabilities, which will help Bionorica to maximise utilization and maintain high flexibility. Bionorica is also using the Virtual I/O server capabilities of POWER5 and Linux on POWER to provide an abstraction layer for disks and networking, introducing a further degree of flexibility

“The main advantage of the new Linux on POWER architecture and DB2 UDB is the low cost of acquisition,” says Wolfgang Franz. “We estimate that the initial cost is 50 per cent lower than for our previous system – taking into account the costs for the hardware, operating system and database. We also have far greater flexibility, because with Linux we no longer have any licensing restrictions on how many partitions we run.”

When the migration is complete, the production p5 system will include three dynamic partitions dedicated to mySAP solutions (enterprise resource planning, Business Intelligence, customer relationship management and CRM). The backup server will have a total of six partitions (separate test and development for each of the three SAP software environments. To reduce the costs for network and fibre channel switches, Bionorica uses virtual I/O servers in a shared processor pool with dynamic resource balancing.


High-quality support
Beyond its attractive licensing model, Linux offers the benefit of ideas and information exchange with the large open source community. Bionorica engages fully in the community, contributing experience and learning from other businesses. The company also has a full service contract with IBM for Linux support.

“IBM provides excellent, high-quality support for Linux,” comments Wolfgang Franz. “The installation was not trivial, but we have experienced no problems since then – it’s a very stable and reliable operating system. Furthermore, the usability of DB2 UDB under Linux is very good, and the maintenance requirement is very low.”

Bionorica worked with IBM Business Partner SYSDAT on all aspects of its new Linux on POWER infrastructure. “IBM put us in touch with SYSDAT, and we are very impressed with the quality of service they provided,” says Wolfgang Franz. “We also have received additional support from the IBM Böblingen Development Center, which is responsible for SAP on Linux on Power .”

Once Bionorica’s SAP systems are in full production under Linux on the POWER architecture, the company expects excellent performance, stability and flexibility.

“The virtualization capabilities of the p5 servers will help us to maintain a very high level of flexibility for our SAP systems,” says Wolfgang Franz. “The technological leadership of the POWER architecture and IBM DB2 UDB gives us confidence that IBM is the best choice for the long term.”