Case Study : Belgium : Manufacturing
Lenovo EMC prove their mettle
by forging strong links
with steel manufacturer
Client:
Benelux steel manufacturer
Industry:
Manufacturing
Challenges:
• Company restructuring globally put pressure
on finances, requiring a creative model to meet
requirements
• Lease agreement with existing vendor was coming to
an end and fast migration was needed
• Backup and storage required at 20 branch sites, in
addition to central storage systems
Solution:
ix12-300r Network Storage Array
Benefits:
• Compatibility with overall EMC solution which replaced
rival vendor equipment
• Scalable capacity expands from 8TB to 24TB
• Native replication to VNX systems
• Ability to back up to cloud services
A Benelux-based manufacturer is one of the leading companies in its industry, producing millions of
tones of crude steel per year. Now a geographically-diversified steel producer with a global footprint
and a Fortune 500 company, it operates directly in more than 20 countries and maintains a commercial
presence in several additional locations across the globe.
The company’s corporate goal is to significantly increase its steel production output over the next
number of years and to achieve this aim, the company has embarked on a major acquisition drive in
addition to building greenfield production facilities.
THE challenge
The customer is undergoing major restructuring across its global operations and especially in the
Benelux region, which is home to one of its largest steel making facilities. The company is renowned
for its excellence in knowledge management and its installed technology base was centered ­primarily
around vendors IBM, HP and NTAP. It was seeking a new enterprise storage solution to replace four
HP EVA systems which were reaching the end of their lease term, as well as four Brocade 48000
systems. A deadline of 1 November was crucial, as this was when the lease agreement with HP would
expire, so it meant the migration to the new solution would have to take place by then.
Iomega® ix12-300r
Network Storage Array
•Enterprise-class data protection with the LenovoEMC™
LifeLine™ operating system
•Remote support via email notification and web access
•Simplified user and group management with Windows®
Active Directory® support
•Simultaneous NAS file-level and iSCSI block-level access
•Certified for VMware® vSphere 4.0, Citrix® XenServer™,
Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows
Server 2008 R2
•Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10
•Available in 4TB and 8TB base capacities, 24TB maximum
configuration
The contract presented two further challenges. One was from a logistical standpoint – since the
­company has a series of 20 branch offices around the Netherlands – and the other was financial, as
the company’s restructuring required a flexible cost model to work within its budget.
www.lenovoemc.com
Case study : Belgium : Manufacturing
the solution
Further competition for this contract emerged from a range of other rival suppliers, which meant for
LenovoEMC, winning the deal would call for a mix of energy and creativity around the solution sale.
“The team had to deliver the extra mile as of day one,” says Andries Oskam, Enterprise Account
Manager with EMC.
To replace the existing storage systems, the combined solution involved implementing EMC VNX5500
and VNX5300 systems and four Brocade DCX4s, along with a further 20 Iomega network attached
storage units and EMC Avamar deduplication and backup system in the branch offices. Avamar allows
fast, daily full backups for VMware environments, remote offices, enterprise applications, LAN/NAS
servers, as well as desktops and laptops.
The EMC team, working in close alignment with its partner Brocade, devised a creative financial
model for the deal, which was valued in total at $720,000. The solution involved utility, capex buffers
and opex buffers, presented by the EMC team which strengthened the customer’s trust in both the
EMC team and the organization as a whole. Details supplied by a key partner provided a key piece of
intelligence that allowed the team to structure the offer in a way that benefited the customer best.
THE conclusion
The outcome of the deal is increased storage efficiency for the steel maker, thanks to fast caching
technology and a creative financing approach that maximized its spend. This was no short-term
solution, but one that will work over the coming years with the customer’s corporate strategy to
consolidate to data centers in Europe, while maintaining local storage and backup services at its
remote offices. The solution is also compatible with the company’s SAP enterprise resource planning
environment.
For the company’s remote Dutch offices, the input of EMC pre-sales consultant was critical, as he
proposed ix12-300r Network Storage Array as having a number of key advantages, including native
replication towards the company’s VNX systems. Moreover, the ix12-300r Network Storage Array is
scalable, starting with 8TB expandable up to 24TB in a single array. It’s also capable of backing up to
cloud services.
Powered by LenovoEMC’s enterprise-class LifeLine software, the ix12-300r Network Storage
Array allows simultaneous multi-protocol file and iSCSI block-level access. A highly reliable, high
performance unit, the ix12-300r Network Storage Array is ideally suited for tasks such as email and
database applications or is equally adept at providing fast backup.
ABOUT Lenovo EMC, Ltd.
LenovoEMC is a joint venture established in
December 2012 between Lenovo and EMC
that includes the Iomega network storage
product business. Lenovo and EMC created
the joint venture based on Lenovo’s record
as one of the fastest-growing information
technology companies and Iomega’s
heritage as a leader in network storage
solutions. LenovoEMC delivers quality and
ease-of-use that make its network storage
products the best choice for customers
of all types. LenovoEMC develops and
updates the LenovoEMC LifeLine™ storage
operating system for its family of Iomegabranded products. To learn more about all
of LenovoEMC’s Iomega-branded network
storage products, please go to the Web at
www.iomega.com or www.lenovoemc.com.
Resellers can visit Iomega at www.ioclub.net.
®
®
www.lenovoemc.com
© 2013 Lenovo. All rights reserved. Lenovo, the Lenovo logo and For Those Who Do are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both. EMC is a registered trademark or trademark of EMC Corporation
in the U.S. and other countries. Iomega, the stylized “i” logo, LenovoEMC and LenovoEMC LifeLine are registered trademarks or trademarks of LenovoEMC in the United States, other countries, or both. Certain other product
names, brand names and company names may be trademarks or designations of their respective owners. The current model name equivalent to the ix12-300r mentioned in this story is Lenovo EMC px12-400r network storage
array. This case study is prior to the LenovoEMC Ltd. joint venture established in December 2012, which includes the Iomega network storage business. Therefore, all references to Iomega product and company name have been
replaced by Lenovo or LenovoEMC for actualization purposes.