KDRS/RZRS boosts client service with SAP ERP on IBM Systems

To read a German version of this case study, click here.

Based in Stuttgart, Germany, administration and computer services specialist KDRS/RZRS employs more than 250 people. Its full title, Kommunale Datenverarbeitung Region Stuttgart Zweckverband / Rechenzentrum Region Stuttgart GmbH, reflects its 40-year history as an IT service enterprise, serving six million citizens in the region.

Frank Wondrak, General Manager, and Lothar Michel, Computer Centre Manager, explain, “We have developed into a modern IT service company focused on the Stuttgart metropolitan region, in the heart of Baden-Württemberg. With a market share of nearly 100 percent in the region, we support a complete range of infrastructure and software solutions, including business services and eGovernment solutions, based on innovation, cost and service leadership. The next step of our evolution will be that we attack the public IT market beyond Baden-Württemberg.”

KDRS/RZRS runs five main SAP ERP application landscapes; one is for the City of Stuttgart, which includes the SAP for Public Sector solution. The organization also runs the SAP Human Capital Management application for other local authorities on a shared basis. The finance and general business management applications support a total of approximately 10,000 users, while around 1,000 users access SAP Human Capital Management.

SAP for Public Sector solutions are designed to enable public authorities to optimize limited resources while delivering responsive front-office services. Functions range from accounting and procurement to case management and social services. Where two or more public agencies share responsibility for a common outcome, SAP for Public Sector solutions can integrate information, processes, and technology to support active collaboration.

Dealing with growth
Both the number of users and the total transaction volumes are inexorably rising at KDRS/RZRS, with a consequent rise in system workload. For the business to meet its service level commitments it is essential to ensure excellent performance, even as business increases.

The City of Stuttgart, provincial capital of Baden-Württemberg, is the major customer and represents the biggest user community. Nearly all administration processes in Stuttgart are supported by SAP functionality. Therefore it is mandatory for KDRS/RZRS that its systems integrate effectively with the City’s own infrastructure.

“To be able to support our customers we need regular updates so that our software versions match theirs,” says Manfred Schurr, Head of SAP Application Management at KDRS/RZRS. “Even if there is no direct improvement, we want to run the same update cycles, creating a standard operating base for developments and ensuring that we meet our targets for high availability and high service quality.”

Creating a new infrastructure
The existing SAP application landscape was hosted on 30 Intel processor-based HP servers, each with two CPUs. Around 14TB of data was managed by IBM DB2 running on IBM System z. An expected increase of around 20 percent in SAP Human Capital Management users would place additional workload on the application servers, which had reached their capacity limits and could not be upgraded.

“To minimize transition risks, we specified that the replacement servers should be Intel processor-based systems,” says Lothar Michel. “Additionally, our objective was that the existing workload should occupy no more than 30 percent of the new solution’s total capacity, to provide sufficient headroom for growth that would reduce the need for another system refresh.”

Building on IBM BladeCenter
KDRS/RZRS worked closely with SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH, an IBM Premier Business Partner, to design, size and specify a new application solution, as well as review the role of the IBM System z servers and the DB2 database.

SVA recommended an IBM BladeCenter solution for the SAP application servers, using IBM HS21 blades, each with two Intel Xeon Processor 5400 series processors. As opposed to the 30 HP servers that made up the former solution, ten blades in a single BladeCenter H chassis now support the complete SAP landscape. KDRS/RZRS currently runs Microsoft Windows in this environment, but plans to migrate to Linux in the near future.

“We did not consider other non-Intel solutions, and the IBM BladeCenter clearly offered the capacity and flexibility we were seeking,” says Lothar Michel.

The IBM BladeCenter H chassis is designed to deliver high-performance computing for compute-intensive applications, with minimal maintenance and downtime. With capacity for 14 blades, the chassis can pack up to 112 quad-core processors into an industry-standard 9U rack space. The highly integrated IT infrastructure simplifies the deployment, provisioning and management of servers as well as network and storage switch fabrics. KDRS/RZRS has purchased a total of 80 blades, for its SAP application landscapes and for running its own general business solutions. This includes 12 blades running VMware virtualized servers, 30 running Citrix servers and applications, five web servers and a number of other standalone application servers.

Exploiting the power of IBM software
Part of the SVA review included examining the role, performance and capacity of the IBM System z platform and the DB2 database. This included evaluating a change to another database vendor, checking if this would offer better value or increased performance.

As a result of this evaluation, SVA recommended DB2 as the best database server for KDRS/RZRS, and additionally recommended that smaller Microsoft SQL databases should be migrated to DB2 as well.

Bernd Muth, Chief of SAP Software Technology, comments, “It was clear that our high level of DB2 know-how and our good experience of its close integration with SAP were major factors in the decision to remain with DB2. Migrating other databases to DB2 gave us the opportunity to unify the general database structures, and to automate and simplify storage administration with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager.”

Previously, with multiple database types on different platforms, securing client data was not easily possible, requiring several different software tools. With all databases standardized to DB2 and migrated to the System z platform this is now simple. Bernd Muth says, “In the past it was a great challenge to be able to handle data backups. With all data within DB2 on the System z, we run daily snapshots, which take just three minutes to complete.”

Upgrading to z10
With the forecast increase in users and resulting increase in transactions, as well as the consolidation of other databases to DB2, SVA recommended that the existing server should be upgraded, to an IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (EC) server.

Lothar Michel comments, “The performance of DB2 in combination with the new z10 EC is really remarkable. Looking at the performance reports, it is clear that the new server has easily sufficient capacity to handle constantly growing customer needs for some time. The z10 EC offers increased performance at lower energy consumption, with greater capacity for long-term expansion. A special feature is the zIIP processor which offers excellent price-performance for the DB2 database workload.”

Meeting customer needs
Customer satisfaction for an IT service company is directly connected to speed and support, and except for increases in performance, the technology refresh is invisible to customers, which is exactly as it should be.

“Looking at the database group, there has been a huge time saving in terms of handling the data and managing important system tasks such as backup and administration,” says Herr Muth. “System availability has been greatly improved. In future, KDRS/RZRS will also review a possible migration to the Unicode standard. Although the introduction of Unicode usually results in an increase in total data volumes, the usage of System z hardware compression for the DB2 SAP database promises savings of around 40 percent, and the net result looks very attractive when faced with 14TB of current data.

Frank Wondrak concludes, “We rely on superb performance and excellent support to attract and retain clients, and the IBM BladeCenter and System z platforms provide the perfect foundation for KDRS/RZRS´s accelerated growth in future.”