Learn how China Railway is making a move to cloud computing by using IBM Power Systems virtualization to implement infrastructure as a service leading to impressive results. For more information on IBM Power Systems, visit http://ibm.co/Lx6hfc. Visit http://on.fb.me/LT4gdu to 'Like' the official Facebook page of IBM India Smarter Computing.

1. IBM Systems and Technology Travel and transportation
Case Study
China Railway: Making the
move to cloud computing
Using IBM Power Systems virtualization to
implement infrastructure as a service
Beijing-based China Railway Materials Commercial Corporation is a
Overview large-scale, state-run enterprise that supplies and supports the country’s
vast rail network. It has 18 storage and transportation bases around the
The need
country, with an area totaling more than 1.55 million square meters. The
Business growth at China Railway
Materials Commercial Corporation organization has 27 subsidiaries across China, 10 holding companies, two
(China Railway) created significant overseas companies and a logistics college.
challenges at its data center with under-
utilized hardware and rising costs for
equipment, operation and maintenance.
China Railway relies on SAP enterprise software to run all business divi-
sions and its subsidiaries. The industry-leading application suite met the
The solution company’s needs, but there was a significant technical challenge: the
China Railway worked with IBM Business
extended enterprise needed more IT flexibility and efficiency to keep up
Partner BeiJing Teamsun Technology
to create a virtualized infrastructure, with growing demand. With so many business units asking for resources,
offering computing services to its there were bottlenecks that hurt performance and productivity. In addi-
many subsidiaries through infrastructure- tion, China Railway’s growth, while good for the company, was leading to
as-a-service (IaaS) management.
server sprawl. The only way to add capacity was to deploy more servers,
The benefit and every year the cost of equipment, power, cooling and management
Optimizing resource allocation and deliv- increased. At the same time, servers were dramatically underutilized
ery helped reduce the company’s time to
because it was not possible to effectively match resources with workloads.
market by 50 percent, while cutting costs
for equipment and systems management
by one-third. “We were able to meet our immediate needs with conventional servers
and storage,” says Mr. Du Yao, IT System Administrator at China
Railway. “But it was not sustainable. Business growth required us to look
for alternatives. We decided to build a new infrastructure that would
become the foundation for cloud computing in the future.”

2. IBM Systems and Technology Travel and transportation
Case Study
Moving to the cloud
China Railway worked with IBM Business Partner BeiJing Teamsun
“If I had one thing Technology to develop its new infrastructure, based on the company’s
to suggest to those TeamsunCloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) software, and a virtual-
considering a project like ized IBM® Power Systems™-based infrastructure. The Teamsun IaaS
solution is based on IBM Systems Director management software,
this, it would be to come IBM PowerVM®, and IBM Systems Director VMControl™, and offers
visit us and take a look at the ability to allocate computing resources far more effectively and
efficiently for greater utilization of assets and lower cost.
our system. Experience
first-hand what can be “Our concept was to create an environment based on the IaaS model,”
done to optimize the says Du Yao. “By making infrastructure resources available as a service,
we would make better use of our hardware investments. At the same time,
business and processes.” the IT environment would be much simpler and easier to manage.”
China Railway had been using approximately ten x86 servers and two
—Du Yao, IT System Administrator, UNIX servers, all managed separately. Now, the infrastructure has been
China Railway
consolidated onto three IBM POWER® 750 Express servers, managed
as a seamless environment.
Careful analysis pays off
China Railway chose IBM Power Systems and IBM Systems Software
technology for several reasons. “We did a thorough evaluation of quality,
pricing, capabilities and expected benefits,” says Du Yao. “We found that
Teamsun and IBM offered technical, as well as cost advantages, thanks in
part to IBM flexibility in meeting our budget requirements. We also got
peace of mind working with IBM, which is a highly respected and trusted
provider. That was important to us.”
Teamsun experts collaborated with China Railway’s IT staff to prepare a
detailed project plan and solution architecture, including processes for
management of the new infrastructure. IBM provided technical support
to help ensure a trouble-free deployment. Teamsun also conducted train-
ing for China Railway on IBM Power Systems, the AIX® operating
system, IBM PowerHA® configuration and IBM PowerVM. “Teamsun
was very diligent and responsive, doing a good job of implementing
the solution,” says Du Yao. “They gave us a better understanding of
IBM products and systems usage. That was of great help to us in
optimizing our operations.”
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3. IBM Systems and Technology Travel and transportation
Case Study
A more flexible way of providing IT services
Solution components The solution makes use of IBM PowerHA to ensure high availability
through clustering of the three POWER 750 Express servers along with
Software virtual system mirroring. IBM PowerVM, IBM Systems Director
●●
IBM® AIX®
●●
IBM PowerHA® VMControl and TeamsunCloud IaaS software are used to manage the
●●
IBM PowerVM® environment. This fully virtualized infrastructure supports all of China
●●
IBM Systems Director v6.2 Railway’s SAP workloads, across all of its businesses.
Enterprise Edition
●●
IBM Systems Director VMControl™
●●
TeamsunCloud The infrastructure now provides virtualized IaaS on a managed basis.
While some processes are automated and controlled by authorized users,
Servers
●●
IBM POWER® 750 Express China Railway IT administrators exert policy-based approval authority
●●
IBM Power Systems™ over resource usage. Users request capacity and once approved, hardware
allocation, configuration, workload management and resource re-uptake
IBM Business Partner
●●
BeiJing Teamsun Technology are handled autonomously by TeamsunCloud and Systems Director.
What once required formal requests, approval, procurement, installation,
management and maintenance of physical systems is now handled auto-
matically in a virtual environment.
Through a centralized console that provides end-to-end control,
IBM Systems Director gives China Railway the flexibility it needs as it
moves towards cloud computing. The current hybrid approach, which
combines the automation of cloud with manual oversight by administra-
tors, aligns with the company’s present business priorities. At the same
time, Systems Director lays the foundation for future evolution should
the business elect to adopt a fully autonomous cloud model.
Simpler infrastructure, lower costs
The solution has enabled China Railway to achieve impressive results:
deployment periods have decreased by 50 percent and the cost of
equipment and infrastructure management has dropped by one-third.
“We’re very satisfied with the work Teamsun and IBM did,” says Du Yao.
“It went very smoothly and there were no major issues.”
Du Yao is proud of what China Railway has been able to accomplish with
its new solution—even to the point of sharing the company’s success
with others. “If I had one thing to suggest to those considering a project
like this, it would be to come visit us and take a look at our system.
Experience first-hand what can be done to optimize the business and
processes.”
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4. For more information
To learn more about IBM virtualization and systems management, please
contact your IBM marketing representative or IBM Business Partner, or
visit us at: ibm.com/systems/software
For more information on China Railway visit:
http://www.crm-xa.com/English
For more information on BeiJing Teamsun Technology visit:
http://www.teamsun.com.cn/en/
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