Graybar transforms performance with integrated SAP and IBM infrastructure

About this paper
This brief describes how Graybar, with IBM as its infrastructure partner, migrated from its proprietary mainframe solution to SAP ERP applications and ultimately to SAP Business Suite 7. Graybar has taken a continuous improvement path toward fully integrated SAP applications on a flexible, resilient IBM infrastructure. This paper details the principal application, server and storage technologies, and describes the route taken and future direction.

The central message is that well-executed, large-scale systems can deliver very low operating costs and create a flexible infrastructure suitable for the latest Web technologies.

Customer Objectives

• Encourage and enable organic growth and continuous improvement
• Provide technology solutions to make doing business with Graybar easier
• Take advantage of developments in Information Technology to align with business goals
• Minimize business disruption
• Identify and implement efficient, cost-effective, timely solutions that optimize use of resources
• Manage to budget

IBM Solution

• IBM^® Dynamic Infrastructure^® Solution Components
• IBM Power^® and IBM Power Systems™ servers
• IBM BladeCenter^® with IBM JS43 and HS22
• IBM System x^®
• IBM System Storage^®
• Tivoli^® Storage Manager (TSM)
• Tivoli Network Manager
• Tivoli Netcool: Impact, OMNIbus, Reporter, Webtop
• Tivoli Composite Application Manager
• Tivoli Omegamon
• IBM Global Services: Off and On Shore SAP Basis, DBA and WebSphere^® Support

SAP Solution

• SAP^® ERP 6.0
• SAP NetWeaver^® Business Warehouse 7.0
• SAP Supply Chain Manager 5.0
• SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.0
• SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.0

Customer Benefits

• Integrated SAP solutions: provide a single platform for enterprise management, enabling long-term customer service and Web strategies
• PowerVM™: provide mainframe class reliability, availability and security for Graybar’s most critical server systems
• System x and VMware: increase server utilization and availability with multiple applications
• IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC): provide seamless migration of storage subsystems without service disruption
• XIV^® system: lower total cost of ownership due to optimized storage capacity utilization and ease of management
• Service management: create a consolidated view of SAP landscape and system resources
• Energy efficiency: maintain power and cooling expense while increasing computing capacity by 25 percent
• Business resiliency: apply innovative concepts to unplanned and planned outages and disaster recovery

Executive summary
In 2001 Graybar decided to run its business on SAP software and looked to IBM as its infrastructure partner to assure a successful and cost-effective implementation.

In order to achieve success, Graybar decided to transform the business and implement SAP ERP applications, as well as SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM), SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (BW), SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM), SAP NetWeaver Portal and SAP Process Integration (PI). Today the release levels comply with the components of SAP Business Suite 7, supporting roughly 7,000 end users.

Along the way, Graybar has become an enthusiastic and successful adopter of advanced technology, including sophisticated virtualization using IBM AIX and IBM SAN Volume Controller, IBM Tivoli Monitoring solutions and IBM PowerHA to provide resiliency for its business-critical infrastructure.

IBM Dynamic Infrastructure helps to improve visibility and control across all areas of the business and IT assets. By introducing a flexible infrastructure based on a combination of service management and appropriate supporting technology, IBM Dynamic Infrastructure moves away from a static technology base towards one which responds in real time to the actual business workload.

On this basis, Graybar deployed a range of IBM Tivoli Monitoring solutions, including, for example, IBM Tivoli Netcool and IBM Tivoli Productivity Center and IBM Tivoli Network Manager, to automate service management to a high degree.

To ensure that the SAP applications meet service level objectives, Graybar has deployed multiple logical partitions (LPARs) on the IBM Power Systems servers and used VMware ESX on IBM BladeCenter servers. Each application is automatically allocated suitable processor and I/O resources as required, while collectively Graybar has installed fewer physical servers than a typical application landscape without virtualization.

Graybar has applied the same techniques, using IBM SAN Volume Controller to virtualize and manage 330TB of data storage. For example, data can be moved from one device to another without taking applications off-line, and physical storage servers can be retired without affecting production in any way.

To protect the company against disaster, Graybar operates twin data centers, in St. Louis and Kansas City, both in Missouri. In the primary datacenter servers are clustered using IBM PowerHA. Its secondary datacenter hosts development, quality assurance (QA) and training systems. Production database logs are transferred throughout the business day to disaster recovery copies of the databases. In the event of a disaster at the primary datacenter, QA and training systems are reconfigured to support production. This ensures that data is protected and Graybar is able to continue in production.

On this secure foundation Graybar intends to build its internet operations. Approximately 90 percent of all orders currently arrive by phone and fax, and Graybar wants to provide customers with self-service capabilities using the Web and possibly mobile devices such as cell phones, netbooks and PDAs.

Randy Miller, Manager of Technical Systems Administration, says, “As Graybar looked to implement SAP solutions, we realized this was a major commitment for the company. We chose IBM as our infrastructure partner. IBM provided guidance, technical expertise and reliable server and storage solutions that contributed to our successful implementation. We continue to work with IBM as our infrastructure partner to improve performance and availability while working together to manage costs.”

About Graybar
Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services.

Through its network of more than 240 North American distribution facilities, Graybar stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, serving as the vital link to hundreds of thousands of customers. The company provides a wide range of value-added services that helps its customers power and network their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency.

Including its corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, Graybar employs approximately 7,000 people at locations throughout the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.

With 2008 revenues of $5.4 billion, Graybar ranked number 439 on the 2009 FORTUNE 500 ranking of America’s largest companies. In addition, Graybar has been listed on FORTUNE World’s Most Admired Companies list for eight consecutive years (2009) and ranked first among all companies for Management Quality and Long Term Investment (2009).

The company was originally founded in 1869 by inventor Elisha Gray and entrepreneur Enos Barton and was incorporated as Graybar Electric Company, Inc. in 1925. Graybar was purchased by its employees in 1929 and has remained employee owned ever since. In fact, 2009 marks the company’s 140th anniversary and 80 years of employee ownership.

SAP implementation on IBM infrastructure
In 2001 Graybar decided to run its business on SAP software and looked to IBM as its infrastructure partner to assure a successful and cost-effective implementation.

In order to achieve success, Graybar decided to transform the business and implement SAP ERP, SCM, BW, CRM, NetWeaver Portal and PI solutions. Today, the release levels comply with the components of SAP Business Suite 7, supporting roughly 7,000 end users.

As a wholesale distributor of electrical and communications/data products, and committing to run almost all business processes on SAP, Graybar’s transaction rate is much higher than other companies of similar size.

Graybar’s SAP applications run on IBM Power Systems using AIX (5.3 and 6.1) and Oracle (10g), while SAP NetWeaver Portal runs on Windows Server 2003 on IBM System x with Microsoft SQL Server.

Three other important applications complete the infrastructure picture: email, warehouse management and the customer-facing online store. IBM WebSphere WebCommerce provides the end customer portal and Infor provides the warehouse management system.

IBM Dynamic Infrastructure at Graybar
A dynamic infrastructure aligns business and IT assets and supports the overall goals of the business while taking a smarter, new and more streamlined approach that:

• Integrates visibility, control, and automation across all business and IT assets
• Is highly optimized: allowing you to do more with less
• Addresses the information challenge
• Manages and mitigates risks.

The following Dynamic Infrastructure disciplines described below show how each benefits the IT solutions at Graybar.

Service Management
Graybar was an early adopter of service management. Before Information Technology Infrastructure (ITIL) resounded throughout the land, Graybar worked with IBM to define and document important infrastructure processes and procedures in IT, around implementation, problem, change and configuration management. Graybar is nearly halfway through a three-year effort to assess gaps in ITIL processes and implement a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) in order to further improve availability, and to make implementation of infrastructure changes easier.

Monitoring
Graybar has developed and matured its monitoring efforts over a long period of time. Originally implementing a framework solution, the company learned that using a Manager of Managers (MOM) approach would better serve its needs. This approach allowed each technology silo to use the best tools for its environment in filtering data to the central monitoring manager. Graybar selected IBM Tivoli Netcool as its MOM solution. By using various tools for each technology such as Tivoli Network Manager, SAP Solution Manager/CCMS, it is possible to address specific monitoring needs.

Virtualization / Consolidation
Virtualization and consolidation make up one of the cornerstones of a Dynamic Infrastructure. This is realized at Graybar with IBM Power VM and with VMware on IBM System x.

IBM Power / AIX Servers
Starting in the 1990s with AIX 3.2.1, Graybar implemented a distributed print and decision support system. Learning about Unix and gaining confidence in RS/6000 servers, Graybar deployed a warehouse management system (WMS) — its first enterprise-class, mission-critical application on IBM S80s. With this solution, Graybar also implemented its first Storage Area Network (SAN) and high availability cluster.

The success of the WMS system made IBM the first-choice infrastructure partner for Graybar in the implementation of its SAP systems landscape on AIX. Today the SAP landscape is running on virtualized, micro-partioned, shared processor LPARs via Virtualization I/O servers (VIOS) connecting to the LAN and virtually via SVC to the storage subsystems. Each SAP instance is “over-provisioned” to leverage the flexibility of “breathing” LPARs, able to cope with the varying load behavior of the various SAP systems.

IBM System x / Microsoft Windows Servers
Graybar was also an early adopter of blade server technology, recognizing the cost, power and cooling benefits. Taking advantage of the support from IBM of new blades on original BladeCenter chassis, Graybar refreshes server technology every three years, leaving the chassis in place, greatly reducing the overall cost of ownership and minimizing impact of the refresh.

Over time, as Windows virtualization technology matures, Graybar has developed its Windows virtualization strategy in parallel. Originally VMware was used with development, QA and very low impact servers to minimize hardware investment. As the VMware environment matured, more application components were run on VMware and the load increased. With VMware’s high availability and load leveling features, Graybar now considers VMware as its primary platform on IBM System x for the implementation of new solutions.

Graybar hosts these major enterprise applications on Windows:

• SAP NetWeaver Portal
• SAP Business Objects
• Microsoft Exchange (email)
• Microsoft Live Communications Server (instant messaging)
• Internet Access Authentication – filtering
• Document Imaging
• Wireless Access Control
• Job Scheduling

Energy Efficiency
Graybar found that while increasing its computing capacity by 40% over the last four years, it did not have to add any power and cooling capacity during that time.

By replacing older disk subsystems with IBM XIV energy and cooling costs have been significantly reduced by an additional 14 percent (25 KW and 6 tons of air conditioning).

Business Resiliency
Graybar’s IT organization ensures that the performance availability of the SAP systems exceed the expectations of the business, while meeting budget and headcount limits. This contributes to a very good relationship between IT and the business. The IT organization is empowered to work in a more autonomous manner, increasing quality, efficiency, and overall satisfaction with the services provided. The IT organization works to exceed 99.99 percent availability, excluding planned maintenance coordinated with the business.

More concretely, Graybar’s business resiliency strategy covers unplanned outages, planned outages and disaster recovery. Graybar runs two data centers, the primary site in St. Louis, MO and the secondary site in Kansas City, MO. For unplanned outages the production the production SAP databases and Central Instances are clustered using IBM PowerHA.

Graybar’s successful experience over the past years has proven IBM’s reliability, availability and serviceability of hardware. The hardware has been running so reliably that it has influenced the design and architecture of the overall systems landscape.

Graybar uses SVC to perform advanced storage subsystem functions across its entire storage pool, rather than investing in proprietary technology for each individual subsystem acquired. SVC Flash Copy creates copies of production databases in approximately one minute while only pausing the database, allowing Graybar to back up the production database with TSM to tape on its IBM 3584 Tape Library offline. Graybar ships the database redo-logs to its secondary data center via the network, keeping the disaster recovery database synchronized with production.

While Graybar’s IT organization enjoys a very reasonable timeframe for recovery of mission-critical applications, in case of a catastrophic failure or disaster such as a tornado, earthquake, fire or similar event, disaster recovery tests (everything shut down gracefully) prove that the solution can be back up and running in less than eight hours.

Due to Graybar’s geographic footprint and business model, IT enjoys a generous maintenance window regarding planned outages. Effort is made to limit such activity and ensure that the business functions are informed. This approach is well tolerated by the business.

Graybar branch and district locations each have a System x3200 or x3650 server to provide economical file, print, software distribution and rich media caching services. Graybar has developed a hardware support model that meets or exceeds the business availability requirements while keeping costs down.

The servers at the 240 locations are backed up over the network to TSM in one of the two data centers, with no local tape drives. The hardware systems in the remote locations are covered by only IBM warranty, and are not covered by maintenance contracts.

When suspect hardware is identified at the branch office, Graybar IT uses a server from their pool of spare servers available in the central location. One spare server is ‘restored’ using the last TSM data backup, then packed and shipped overnight to the remote location. By 10:30 the next morning, the system is connected and put in service so that the business can continue to run. This approach saves maintenance costs and the often lengthy procedures required to determine the problem, order spare parts and install them at the remote site. The procedure ensures that the server is replaced in an acceptable amount of time, avoiding unnecessary time spent repairing the server locally and recovering data. The suspect server is returned to St. Louis, is repaired without time constraints, and is placed back into the spare server pool.

Information infrastructure

SVC
IBM partnered with Graybar to implement IBM San Volume Controller in 2005. Today Graybar has 330TB of enterprise disk behind SVC, allowing it to allocate the appropriate class of disk regardless of subsystem make or model. Normally moving data to different devices would present a challenge with drivers or connectivity, yet SVC allows the allocation process with just one device-driver. Using SVC “drag and drop”, Graybar migrates storage from retiring subsystems to new devices without taking the applications down. This reduces the amount of time required to provide overlapping infrastructures, and increases subsystem utilization.

In addition to increasing storage productivity, Graybar has discovered the efficiency of SVC allows the enterprise storage environment to be managed at a very reasonable cost and with only two administrators.

XIV Storage
The IBM XIV Storage System is a revolutionary, high-end disk storage system that has been designed to eliminate the complexity of administration and management of tiered storage. The XIV system is based on a grid of standard, off-the-shelf hardware components connected in any-to-any topology by means of an internal, redundant, massively paralleled Gigabit Ethernet network, and contained within a single chassis. Its ground-breaking architecture delivers tier-one performance levels while providing up to 79TB of storage capacity at a tier-two price point.

Data is automatically spread across the available disks, and all disks are mirrored to provide full redundancy. If an individual disk fails, the XIV system automatically rebuilds the mirror with a functioning disk – providing rapid autonomic self-healing, with no need for manual input from the IT team. A 1TB disk can be fully rebuilt in 30 minutes or less, significantly reducing the risk of data loss and business disruption. Graybar can also to take advantage of the XIV storage system’s built-in snapshot capability to implement a ‘point-in-time’ backup strategy, as well as asynchronous and/or synchronous mirroring for a robust diaster recovery program.