Keeping 24/7 Operations Running Smoothly with High-Performance Storage for SAP Solutions

Overview

Challenge

• Increase the reliability and availability of the storage infrastructure that underpins HOPI Logistics’ mission-critical SAP solutions.

Solution

• Replace legacy disk storage with two all-NVMe VSP One Block arrays, deployed in an active-active cluster with global-active device (GAD) technology.

Outcome

• HOPI Logistics can restart its SAP databases 50% faster, boosting the availability of key applications and cutting the risk of unplanned downtime.

Challenge

A leading logistics provider operating in Central and Eastern Europe, HOPI Logistics is tightly integrated into the supply chains of some of the world’s best-known retailers and fast-moving consumer goods brands. The company provides warehousing, logistics and transportation services to large multinational manufacturers and suppliers of retail, food and drugstore products. A vertically integrated enterprise, the company also operates its own food production business, specializing in meat and dairy products and ready meals.

Because it plays such a critical role in its customers’ value chains, downtime is simply not an option for HOPI Logistics. The organization relies on SAP solutions to drive its end-to-end business processes, using SAP ERP applications for its logistics and transportation businesses and the next-generation ERP SAP S/4HANA for its food production operations.

Petr Pokorný, Head of IT Operations at HOPI Logistics, says, “SAP is our central nervous system. Without it, practically every aspect of our business, from manufacturing to distribution, would grind to a halt.”

To deliver 24/7 uptime for its SAP solutions, HOPI must ensure that the IT infrastructure that underpins these mission-critical applications is highly reliable and available. However, the company’s existing storage hardware was causing challenges in both these areas.

“The storage setup we had no longer met our expectations around throughput,” continues Pokorný. “This was partially a performance-related issue, but a greater concern was the overall reliability of the system.”

Solution

To improve the reliability of its storage infrastructure, HOPI Logistics issued a public tender. As well as certification for SAP and VMware, the key requirements included at least 3 Gbps read and write performance to enable the company to rapidly shut down and restore its SAP databases during planned maintenance windows or in the case of a disaster recovery event.

After reviewing offerings from a number of leading vendors, HOPI Logistics selected Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One) Block, an all-NVMe block storage solution. Pokorný recalls, “Many of the vendors we looked at offered either an enterprise-class system or a low-end alternative, but Hitachi gave us a solution that was an excellent and cost-effective fit for our needs.”

Following a hands-on proof of concept at the company’s data center and a remote demo of Hitachi Ops Center from the Hitachi Center of Excellence team in Zaltbommel, the Netherlands, HOPI Logistics was convinced that VSP One Block was the optimal platform for its critical SAP workloads. “We were very impressed by how easy it was to use Hitachi Ops Center Administrator to manage the VSP One Block environment,” adds Pokorný. “We also greatly appreciate Hitachi’s global-active device data mirroring functionality, which gives us fast and effective failover capabilities.”

Working with local partner HTD, HOPI Logistics replaced its legacy disk storage environment with two VSP One Block storage arrays, configured in an active-active cluster across two separate data centers with 32 Gbps fibre channel network connectivity.

“Working with HTD was a very positive experience, and we greatly value the support of a local partner,” says Pokorný. “The Hitachi solution is very intuitive, and we perform most of the management ourselves with Hitachi Ops Center. But it gives us peace of mind to know we can always call on HTD for help when we need it.”

Outcome

Through its work with Hitachi and HTD, HOPI Logistics has deployed a storage solution that will support its 24/7 operations for years to come. While the company originally set a requirement for 3 GBps read and write performance in its RFP, Hitachi was able to deliver even greater throughput: 15 Gbps for read operations and 4 Gbps for write operations.

“It would be unthinkable to ask our customers for a three-day maintenance shutdown. It’s crucial for us to keep goods always flowing, day or night,” explains Pokorný. “When it comes to availability, the difference between our old platform and VSP One Block is huge. We can now restart our SAP databases 50% faster, enabling us to complete critical software maintenance tasks within 30 minutes. Crucially, GAD allows us to fail over to our secondary software infrastructure automatically in the event of an issue with our primary site.”

While the new solution offers significantly higher performance, HOPI Logistics is reducing both its energy and data center footprints. The all-NVMe solution occupies just 2U of rack space, a space reduction of 50%,” Pokorný comments. “We are an environmentally conscious organization and recently invested in a large solar array to help reduce our electric consumption. We feel that VSP One Block aligns well with our sustainability objectives.”

With deduplication capabilities from Hitachi, HOPI Logistics is achieving a compression ratio of 2.41:1, reducing storage capacity requirements by around 17 TB. When the time comes to scale out, the company can add capacity quickly and flexibly. “Being able to scale out one disk at a time is very helpful from a budgeting perspective, because the investments are smaller, easier to get approved, and more predictable,” comments Pokorný.

Building on the foundation of reliable and performant block storage from Hitachi, HOPI Logistics is already enhancing its operations. Increased storage performance has allowed the company to migrate its SAP ERP applications to the next-generation SAP HANA database, cutting time-to-insight for teams across the business.

“For me, the ideal situation is not having to think about storage. It should just work,” concludes Pokorný. “Now we are using VSP One Block, I sleep easy at night knowing that we have a reliable solution for our critical SAP business systems. When the time comes to refresh our environment, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll chose Hitachi again if they keep up their commitment to quality, service and performance.”