A Customer Success
from the Experts in
Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
Kabel BW uses Avocent solutions from Emerson
Network Power to remotely manage and optimize its IT
infrastructure
Kabel Baden-Württemberg manages its IT components remotely and
optimizes the documentation and planning of its IT infrastructure using
the latest Avocent® technologies from Emerson Network Power. The
remote management solution, which consists of Avocent DSViewTM
management software, KVM switches, serial console servers as well as
an intelligent power supply, ensures smooth IT operations regardless
of location. In addition, it utilizes Avocent Data Center Planner, which
provides optimal data center planning with a clear documentation of
the requirements on the existing IT infrastructure.
Company
Kabel BW GmbH
Locations
Heidelberg (headquarters), Germany
Stuttgart-Wangen, Villingen-Schwenningen,
Germany
Mannheim, Germany
Industry
Telecommunications
Core Business
Television, Internet, Telephone, Mobile, Videoon-Demand
2.3 million cable customers and about
750,000 Triple Play customers
Web Site
www.kabelbw.de
Applications
• DSViewTM Management Software
With 2.4 million customers, Kabel BW is one of the largest cable network operators
in Europe and is found in every second household in Baden-Württemberg. As a
provider of fast internet, telephone and television (triple play), the company is
dependent on a fully functioning IT system. Incidents in the data center need to be
resolved immediately and new installations have to be carried out quickly.
Before Avocent solutions were in place, all of the 17 system and network
administrators responsible for IT operations had to be present on-site, since
maintenance and configuration could only be carried out on the equipment in the
data center. Without prior starting-up of the operating system or of the network
infrastructure, it was not possible to access the systems, so there always had to be a
member of staff at each location to intervene manually and to support colleagues.
Due to a lack of remote access, IT employees had to be on call at night and during
weekends and be ready to drive to the data center to resolve incidents, which is a
mammoth task with 150 physical servers, approximately 150 virtual servers and
more than 80 network components.
“Our IT colleagues can now quickly and effectively resolve
issues from a distance. This leads to considerable savings
in travel time and costs and offers a real improvement in
working conditions.”
– Timm Menzel, Kabel BW IT System Manager
• Power Manager
• Data Center Planner
• Power Units – PM 3000
Improved working conditions, reduced travel costs
• KVM – MergePoint UnityTM
Kabel BW embarked on a search for a complete solution for IT infrastructure
management that allows the IT team access to the servers and IT components
regardless of their location and allows optimized management of the data center
via improved documentation and planning. With all requirements met, Kabel BW
• ACS Advanced Console Server
• MergePointTM Service Processor Manager
A Customer Success
from the Experts in
Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
chose Avocent solutions from Emerson Network Power. Using the
Avocent DSViewTM management software, all components—regardless
of whether they are servers, blade center, storage systems, switches,
routers or firewalls from different manufacturers—can now be managed
and controlled on a single interface. The solution offers consolidated
and uniform access to all interfaces for remote management in real
time, paving the way for troubleshooting from any location in case of
breakdowns.
using intelligent power sockets, they can even switch power on or off as
required.
Citing some of the advantages of using the solution, Timm Menzel,
Kabel BW IT System Manager (network) explains, “Our IT colleagues
can now quickly and effectively resolve issues from a distance. This
leads to considerable savings in travel time and costs and offers a real
improvement in working conditions.”
Clear documentation
His colleague Martin Belke, Kabel BW IT System Manager (desktop and
server) affirms this and adds, “Thanks to this remote access capability,
the technicians are not permanently subjected to the background noise
and drafts from the air-conditioning units. Working in a quieter and
more protected environment enhances concentration and health and,
ultimately, improves productivity.”
The Avocent solution allows IT employees to operate the distributed
infrastructure remotely yet still have access down to the BIOS level of the
IT units. The browser-based software interface from DSView software is
the central access point for maintaining all servers and IT components.
The administrators can have easy access via out-of-band paths, diagnose
causes and, if necessary, restart the equipment. Also highly beneficial
is the virtual media function of the KVM switch, which enables content
from remotely, locally or externally connected CD-ROM drives or USB
sticks to be copied to the target server.
Optimizing power usage
Data centers can only realize their full potential by using intelligent
power distribution units (PDUs), which depending on the model, can
switch power or even measure the power of each connected unit. The
Avocent PDUs make all the necessary tools for monitoring, measuring
and managing power usage available, making it possible to reduce
electricity costs and minimize downtime.
“This works fully independent from the existing internal network
structure as an out-of-band solution,” explains Belke. “Load limits can be
permanently monitored and pre-set capacity per rack can be easily met.
Consequently, the power usage becomes transparent and therefore,
more cost effective.”
In addition to the remote and power management solution and the
power plug-ins, Kabel BW also uses the Avocent Data Center Planner
from Emerson Network Power for its documentation functionality which
offers a visual overview of all components as well as modeling tools
for its data center planning. This solution enables room and rack views
and offers detailed information about the location, area, power input,
heat emission, ports, network connections and asset management,
making it easy to see at a glance where there is still free capacity,
where dependency exists or whether certain areas of the data center
are threatening to overheat. Planned changes can also be modeled
in advance, effects can be recognized and, finally, the optimum can
be implemented. Ultimately, this provides the company maximum
utilization of its available resources.
“We are operating two data centers at the moment; our main data
center is in Stuttgart and our back-up data center is in Mannheim.
Moreover, we are still supplying 20 service centers or network supply
centers of service technicians in Baden-Württemberg with the IT
network infrastructure for the client systems,” explains Menzel. “On
top of this, we are already planning the construction of a third, georedundant data center near Stuttgart. This is why we want to activate
all the relevant features of the Avocent solution for Kabel BW. Evidently,
the integral Avocent solutions meet all our requirements, so the earlier
they all go live, then the faster we will reach our targets for scalability,
administration costs and system availability.”
Via Avocent Power Manager, IT administrators can monitor the whole
power consumption right down to the individual power socket, and by
Emerson Network Power.
The global leader in enabling Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
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Unity and DSView are trademarks of Avocent Corporation. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. ©2012 Emerson Electric Co. All rights reserved. 0212-KABEL-CS-EN