Electronics Distributor Saves Costs and Streamlines Budget Planning with Dynamic Data Storage Service

Overview

Challenge

• Consolidate data storage platforms, simplify IT operations and align data storage costs dynamically with Bürklin’s hybrid cloud strategy.

Solution

• Harness Hitachi EverFlex to provide an on-premises solution with cloud-like consumption-based monthly bills, combining control and flexibility.

Outcome

• Reduces storage costs, boosts performance and saves hours in storage administration and management, while offering fast, proactive support.

Challenge

Headquartered in Germany, Bürklin Elektronik is a specialized distributor for high-quality and innovative electronics components from over 500 leading manufacturers. The company is a trusted partner for the manufacturing industry including automation technology providers, Internet of Things specialists and the medical technology sector.

The company stocks tens of thousands of items, and its high-quality support and next-day delivery promise are key competitive advantages. Dennis Tullney, Strategic IT Manager at Bürklin Elektronik, says: “We’re processing 1,500 orders every day, each with an average of five items in various quantities. We need very efficient digital processes and warehouse automation to meet our customers’ expectations.”

Reliability is crucial to ensure smooth business and logistics operations, but Bürklin Elektronik’s existing storage infrastructure made it difficult to guarantee availability. It was using a range of storage systems from different vendors  with complicated, expensive licensing terms and difficult to use, time-consuming management tools. The result was an infrastructure that was complex and costly to maintain for the company’s small IT team.

“Our data storage was fragmented, with different systems and contracts, incomplete documentation and inconsistent performance,” confirms Lars Fietkau “Our goal was to simplify and modernize our data storage, boost performance, increase capacity and improve overall sustainability while reducing costs. We wanted more flexibility to increase and decrease storage capacities as needed, to align our costs more closely with our long-term hybrid cloud strategy .”

Solution

Bürklin Elektronik reviewed different alternatives and opted for Hitachi EverFlex. Selecting a flexible five-year infrastructure-as-a-service contract, the company has gained new business agility. “We don’t yet know how our data storage needs will change over the next couple of years,” explains Lars Fietkau. “With Hitachi EverFlex, we do not need to invest in a big storage system up-front. Instead, we pay a simple monthly bill for the capacity we use. And if we move business applications around, we can increase and decrease our capacity easily.”

Working closely with partner IS4IT GmbH, Bürklin Elektronik deployed two Hitachi Vantara Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) E590 arrays with fast network connectivity using Brocade G720 SAN Switches. The infrastructure is distributed across two data centers to maximize business continuity for its applications, which mostly run on VMware virtual machines. Lars Fietkau, IT Coordinator at Bürklin Elektronik, says: “We have a good relationship with our partner IS4IT GmbH. They carefully planned and tested the migration processes and executed the migrations perfectly. Our storage modernization was completed within just three days, significantly ahead of schedule.”

To manage its core business processes, Bürklin Elektronik relies on a Microsoft  Dynamics NAV ERP system with a 2.4 TB Microsoft SQL Server database. “It was really important for the business that IS4IT GmbH completed the migration with minimum disruption to our Microsoft Dynamics applications,” adds Dennis Tullney. “Our warehouse is very busy, and our staff are using hand scanners that are directly integrated with our ERP and warehouse management systems. Any delay would immediately impact on our operations and ultimately our bottom line. It could also harm our reputation, as we are proud of our high service quality and next-day delivery promise.”

Outcome

Bürklin Elektronik can plan its storage costs predictably as its needs change dynamically over time. The company benefits from a price guarantee over five years, and a built-in annual discount model makes the service agreement financially very attractive. “It’s a major advantage for us to avoid a six-figure investment in storage capacity we might never need,” says Lars Fietkau. “Hitachi EverFlex is the ideal solution for us, it perfectly supports our developing hybrid cloud strategy.”

The Hitachi solution is managed by IS4IT GmbH, so Bürklin Elektronik can fully focus on core activities that add value for the business. “IS4IT GmbH is a very experienced and reliable partner,” remarks Lars Fietkau. “In addition to the data center monitoring and support that they already provided; we have now expanded the managed service to cover our new Hitachi solution. It also helps that the new Hitachi infrastructure is easier to manage, so we and IS4IT GmbH both save several hours every month, giving us more time for tasks that drive the business forward.”

While consolidating its data storage and upgrading its storage network, Bürklin Elektronik also moved to an energy-efficient all-flash configuration and replaced its tape backups with a modern disk-based backup and recovery setup. “We can complete management tasks noticeably faster now, which is a huge advantage for us,” notes Lars Fietkau. “In the past, it was becoming difficult to create reliable backups of all systems within our backup windows. Today, the backups are much quicker, and we no longer need to worry about overruns or failures.”

Bürklin Elektronik values Hitachi’s fast, proactive support. Thanks to continuous system monitoring, Hitachi can immediately call the company’s IT team in case they notice any issues such as power outages. Dennis Tullney concludes: “Availability has the highest priority for us, our customers expect quick deliveries on the next business day. This level of service is built on automation and complex logistics. It’s reassuring to know that Hitachi support is always there for us, their proactive communication shows that they really care. This helps us to provide a reliable and seamless customer experience – strengthening our competitive edge in a fast-moving market.”