SUCCESS STORY
Emerson Network Power
Actian Ingres Database
Actian Supplies Emerson Network
Power with 24x7 Support for
Less than the Cost of a DBA
Customer
Emerson Network Power
Industry
Power solutions
Challenge
To centralize IT operations
with minimal downtime
Solution
24x7 support and disaster
recovery solution for less
than the cost of a DBA
Benefits
24x7 Disaster Recovery
›
› 24x7 Support
› Improved reporting
› Exceeded all KPI’s
› Fast ROI
› Lower TCO
“Thanks to the Actian Ingres Database we have a better understanding
of our system… gone are the days when users would notify me of
system issues. This means less problems for me.”
Daniel Sargent
IT Manager, Australian Operations Emerson Network Power
Highlights
Emerson Network Power is a global leader in supplying business-critical power solutions.
While centralizing their IT helpdesk, Emerson required a disaster recovery system with the
highest level of support. The Ingres Support Appliance was chosen to automate, monitor,
identify and quickly resolve any issues. Emerson now benefits from 24x7 support and
disaster recovery for less than the cost of a DBA.
Challenge
In order to streamline processes and reduce costs, Emerson wanted to centralize their
IT helpdesk in Manila, while also seamlessly integrating the Australian operations with
Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Emerson used the Infor Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) solution ‘MK’ as the central hub for information, distribution and reporting.
MK was built on Ingres Database and was integral to the daily operations of Emerson.
The cost of downtime per business day was estimated at $1 million AUD. It was essential
that a 24x7 disaster recovery resource was available to respond to any situation in a timely
manner. Additional local support would be required to properly manage IT networks, systems
and databases for Australia. Due to the consolidating nature of the project, interoperability
issues would become visible, and Emerson’s handling process would need continual
development and improvement.
To take all this work in-house would require hiring a minimum of three full time employees
which was considered an unworkable timeframe. Emerson needed a partner that could
provide both the skill sets and knowledge base to service the Ingres database underlying
the MK application, and provide a 24x7 support service with the highest level of
support and continuity.
SUCCESS STORY
Emerson Network Power
Solution
Emerson commissioned Ingres to build a solution based
on the best-practice ITIL/ITSM methodology. This met
Emerson’s stringent specifications for disaster recovery
services, and provided day-to-day support and reporting.
“I needed an insurance policy for our platform. My
insurance policy was a reputable company like Ingres.
They know the platform inside out, and are processed
focused. They were able to easily integrate our regional
helpdesk system, and can respond quickly to our needs.”
Said Daniel Sargent, IT manager for the Australian
operations.
Initial development focused on the Ingres 24x7
disaster recovery box in Emerson’s regional back-office.
This server now creates a replication of the transactions
processed through the MK application on a daily basis,
with hourly journals created throughout the day. “A
database is like an engine, it needs to be constantly
fine tuned. And that fine-tuning needed to be done
locally,” said Daniel.
Ingres provided Remote Database Administration
(RDBA), which is a customized service for Ingres
clients that need high level administration skills,
but do not want to take on additional internal
resources. Ingres RDBA allowed Emerson to have
access to a constant headcount of highly skilled
technicians familiar with their environment, and
who could respond quickly to any problem.
The Ingres Support Appliance (ISA), an automated
and proactive monitoring service based on the
Nagios toolset, was used to quickly identify and
resolve any issues. ISA identifies when loads on
the database and MK applications are causing
problems, notifying both the Emerson Help
Desk and the Ingres team. Nagios sends event
notifications via email and escalations via SMS
text message to Ingres support staff based
remotely. This warns of impending service interruptions
to the MK system and the expected recovery times.
With immediate alerts, Ingres was able to meet the
SLA of responding to all severe database incidents
within 15 minutes and resolution within 1 hour. These
notifications were critical in managing user expectations
when faults occurred. “Thanks to Ingres we have a
better understanding of our system. We now have a
much better view of the system, and gone are the days
when users would notify me of system issues.” Said
Daniel. “We have seen more solutions for the issues
that occur and better recording and reporting for
future reference. This means less problems for me.”
Results
› Ingres exceeded all the performance KPI’s set by
Emerson Network Power Australia.
›24x7 Disaster recovery solution gave Emerson
and its customers the security of severe database
incidents responded to within 15 minutes and
restored within 1 hour.
›ISA provided processes that record and proactively
report solutions back to Emerson and led to an
increase awareness of potential weaknesses
in the system.
›Emerson can now accurately plan for times of peak
application and database load.
›Ability to observe trends within the system and
devise plans to reduce the number and severity
of the faults.
SUCCESS STORY
Emerson Network Power
About Actian: Take Action on Big Data
Actian Corporation is the first to unveil a Cloud Action Platform for building Action Apps.
Action Apps are lightweight consumer-style applications that automate business actions
triggered by real-time changes in data. Actian products incite action at more than
10,000 customers worldwide by driving their mission critical workloads and providing
rapid action insights to their data. Actian is headquartered in Redwood City, California
with offices in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Melbourne.
Actian Corporation
Actian Europe Limited
Actian Germany GmbH
Actian France
Actian Australia Pty Ltd
500 ARGUELLO STREET
SUITE 200
REDWOOD CITY
CALIFORNIA 94063
USA
PHONE: +1.650.587.5500
217 BATH ROAD
SLOUGH
BERKSHIRE, SL1 4AA
UNITED KINGDOM
PHONE: +44 (0)1753 559500
OHMSTRASSE 12
63225 LANGEN
GERMANY
PHONE: +49 (0) 6103.9881.0
7C PLACE DU DÔME
IMMEUBLE ELYSÉES
LA DÉFENSE
92056 PARIS LA DÉFENSE
CEDEX
FRANCE
PHONE: +33 (0) 1.72.75.74.54
LEVEL 8, SUITE 1
616 ST. KILDA ROAD
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, 3004
AUSTRALIA
PHONE: +61 3 8530.1700
WEIMARER STR. 1A
D-98693 ILMENAU
GERMANY
PHONE: +49 (0) 3677.6785.0
©2011 Actian Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Actian, Cloud Action Platform, Ingres, and Vectorwise are trademarks of
Actian Corporation. All other trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.
SS-727A
ACTIAN.COM
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT ACTIAN@ACTIAN.COM