Virtualization of the Organizations Critical Applications

Virtualization of the organization's critical applications

Customer: AstraZeneca Deutschland GmbH

Short profile
AstraZeneca was formed in 1999 by the merger of the Swedish Astra AB and British Zeneca Group PLC. In 2006 AstraZeneca had a turnover of 1.165 million US dollars with 2.300 employees at its locations in Wedel (Schleswig-Holstein) and Plankstadt (Baden-Wuerttemberg), it is one of the leading pharmaceutical manufacturers in Germany.

Facts and figures

Sector: pharmaceutical industry
Employees: 2.300 within Germany
Turnover: 1.200 million US-$ in Germany

Assignment and goals

Assignment: AstraZeneca wanted to exchange its ageing SAP hardware with a server landscape. AddOn was given the assignment to analyze and evaluate the possibilities and potential that the virtualization of its IT-infrastructure could offer.
Project goals: The ultimate goal was to improve the IT performance. Additionally, the new infrastructure was to ensure a high operational availability of the SAP systems. Furthermore, the new IT landscape had to guarantee the compliance requirements placed on the IT of a pharmaceutical organization.

Solutions

During the "Consulting in a Box - SAP Virtualization Check" package, the AddOn consultants analyzed the current IT-infrastructure, evaluated the consolidation potential and calculated the financial consequences of a virtualization. Based on the results of the analysis, AddOn designed and implemented the virtual SAP infrastructure. The new SAP system landscape makes efficient administration of the consolidated SAP development systems, test systems and productive systems possible. Additionally, it ensures a high operational availability of SAP applications.

Customer assessment

Askin Karatepe, server and database administrator, AstraZeneca "The AddOn consultants have given us tremendous advice on implementing the virtual infrastructure. The consultants have made it possible that we can take advantage of and use the potential of the VMware infrastructure. The concept they developed allows us a 24/7 operational availability of our SAP-systems. The virtual machine templates simplify documentation and reduces server setup time.

The allocation of the physical resources to the virtual machines is a substantial achievement. We are convinced that our productive system runs just as well on a virtual machine as it would in a physical environment - perhaps even better.

I recommend the AddOn SAP Virtualization Check to all organizations with a large number of servers. It gave us the necessary security for our plans. It also provided us with a feasibility study.

Co-operation with the AddOn consultants was very good. Especially the efficient, transparent and very pragmatic way in which project work was done. Another plus was the direct and open communication. I was always up-to-date with the project status.

I highly recommend AddOn as a partner for any organization planning a virtualization project."

SuccessAstraZeneca - Virtualization of the organization's critical applications

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