Futaba Europe GmbH upgraded its IT infrastructure by consolidating multiple servers to an IBM BladeCenter solution, significantly enhancing performance and reducing operational costs. The implementation of SAP ERP 6.0 on the IBM i operating system has resulted in a 30% increase in application performance and a 40% decrease in energy consumption. Overall, this initiative aims to improve business management agility and support future growth while streamlining operations within a smaller physical footprint.

1. Futaba Europe GmbH enables Overview
next-phase growth with SAP Challenge
and IBM Futaba wanted to introduce new
SAP applications to improve
Futaba Corporation of Japan is one of single enterprise-wide solution, and business management, and cut
the world’s leading manufacturers of the IBM System i platform provides operational and infrastructure
vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs) performance, scalability and reliability. costs.
and radio control systems, found in The integrated “DB2 for i” database
cars, audio and video equipment, is embedded in the IBM i operating Solution
point-of-sales terminals, measurement system, at no extra charge, which Futaba consolidated to IBM
equipment – even in doors, cranes, substantially reduces the software BladeCenter technology based
elevators and conveyors. costs. on IBM BladeCenter S. An IBM
JS12 POWER processor-based
Futaba owns manufacturing facilities Masao Hasegawa, Managing Director of blade supports SAP applications
in Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, China Futaba Europe, explains, “It is clear that running on the IBM i operating
and United States, and employs about we will continue to rely on System i from system and HS22 blades powered
6,000 people worldwide. Futaba IBM in future. Our experience shows by Intel Xeon processors support
Europe GmbH, located in Willich near that it provides a reliable basis for our Microsoft Windows operating
Düsseldorf, Germany, was founded business processes. systems.
in 1979 and sells Futaba products
throughout the entire EMEA region. “In order to stay agile in this market Key benefits
and to be able to react to changes SAP ERP application
Enterprise-wide SAP and economic growth, we decided performance has increased
applications to upgrade our enterprise system to by about 30 percent. Server
Futaba Europe GmbH is a long-term SAP ERP 6.0 – the more so as the maintenance and administration
user of SAP applications in the IBM i maintenance contract for the existing costs have been cut, while energy
operating system environment. The SAP system would end in 2013. The consumption has been reduced
SAP applications combine financial rise in general business transaction by 40 percent. Four older servers
accounting, materials management, volumes combined with the new from different manufacturers
and sales and distribution into a workload generated by the additional have been retired, and system
Case study
complexity has been reduced.

2. functionality of the SAP solutions
presented an opportunity to review our
IT landscape, and we looked for the “The BladeCenter
best strategic platform to support our offered the
planned growth.” opportunity to
Business Challenge consolidate all our
Achieve more with less business applications
Futaba Europe is the European
Masao Hasegawa wanted to continue within a small
sales and distribution arm of Futaba
the drive to centralize and consolidate physical footprint,
Corporation of Japan.
applications and data, including non- yet with increased
SAP general office software, as well performance and
Improving margins and profitability
as web, mail, file, and application substantially reduced
requires exceptional control over
servers running Microsoft Windows. costs.”
The objectives were also to cut
operational costs, from inventory
maintenance costs and reduce energy Masao Hasegawa
to finance, as well as back-office
consumption while guaranteeing Managing Director, Futaba Europe
services. Older IT systems were not
a maximum of reliability for the
capable of supporting the latest
production systems.
editions of SAP software, and a
mix of servers, operating systems
IBM Business Partner Fritz & Macziol applications based on IBM i and also
and storage devices were causing
listened to the business requirements, their Microsoft Windows servers on
expenses to rise.
and proposed consolidating the one platform,” says Peter Althapp,
entire landscape to IBM BladeCenter Head of Competence Center SAP
Futaba wanted to introduce new SAP
technology, deploying IBM JS12 on IBM i at Fritz & Macziol. “The IBM
applications to improve business
POWER processor-based blades to BladeCenter platform is the best
management, and cut operational
support the IBM i operating system option to consolidate different physical
and infrastructure costs.
and IBM HS22 Intel processor-based servers and architectures, it helps to
blades to support the Microsoft achieve cost reduction and energy
Windows operating systems. consumption targets while offering
quite a lot of flexibility, including
“After Futaba explained their the option to run systems in virtual
requirements, we quickly proposed a environments.”
solution based on the very compact
IBM BladeCenter technology. This Futaba implemented an IBM
allows Futaba to run their business BladeCenter S chassis with one
2

3. JS12 and four HS22 blade servers, different manufacturers, helping
enabling Futaba to contain its critical Futaba to reduce maintenance
SAP and line-of-business applications and support costs, and reducing
in the same core infrastructure. With energy consumption by around 50
consultants from Fritz & Macziol, percent. Futaba Europe’s entire server
Futaba set up and implemented the infrastructure now can be housed in a
Solution
IBM BladeCenter within three days, single server rack.
upgraded the IBM i operating system
Futaba consolidated to IBM
and migrated the SAP applications from Masao Hasegawa continues:
BladeCenter technology based on
the former servers, and established and “The BladeCenter offered the
IBM BladeCenter S, able to support
tested the new user connections with opportunity to consolidate all our
multiple operating systems on
only eight hours downtime of production business applications within a small
blades within the same chassis.
systems. physical footprint, yet with increased
performance and substantially reduced
An IBM JS12 POWER processor-
Subsequently, Futaba and Fritz & costs. SAP ERP 6.0 poses high IT
based blade supports SAP
Macziol upgraded to SAP ERP with infrastructure requirements, due in part
applications running on the IBM i
ECC 6.0 components, starting with the to the extended functionality to support
operating system and HS22 blades
test environment, and concluding with various business processes. The IBM
powered by Intel Xeon processors
production systems. BladeCenter JS12 blade server with
support Microsoft Windows
32GB main memory is more than
operating systems and ready to use
Consolidate multiple systems to capable of handling the workload.”
with virtualization solutions.
one BladeCenter
Futaba Europe now operates Following the same consolidation
The increased computing capacity
its complete SAP infrastructure principle, Futaba also deployed an
of the JS12 blade allowed Futaba to
including test, quality management IBM System Storage DS3200 as an
upgrade to the latest edition of SAP
and production systems in the IBM integrated Storage Area Network
ERP software, and six individual
BladeCenter on one physical hardware (SAN), with a total capacity of 11 TB.
physical Microsoft Windows servers
instance. This storage solution provides a very
were consolidated to the IBM
high degree of flexibility – specifically
BladeCenter platform.
The BladeCenter supports web, mail, meeting the storage and backup needs
file, and application services based on of Futaba’s Windows environment,
the Microsoft Windows environment, which was an important requirement.
running on four Intel processor-based Now they can use the storage capacity
HS22 blade servers. The HS22 blades more efficient and hereby respond
replace four older servers from four more quickly to changed storage
3

4. demands of their business applications
without the need to touch any
hardware. The new IT landscape also
“Our 14 users in
includes centralized backup for the SAP
financial accounting
applications and all Windows servers to
and sales controlling,
IBM System Storage TS2240 and IBM
for example,
Key Solution Components
System Storage TS2340 tape systems,
benefit directly
improving business resilience and data
from the increased
Industry
security.
performance.
Industrial Products. Response times have
Applications Greater performance for better
improved by about
SAP ERP 6.0 including financials,
®
business
30 percent and sales
controlling, materials management Based on initial results, the
and distribution
and sales and distribution, SAP performance of SAP ERP on the
transactions are
Solution Manager. JS22 blade is significantly faster
processed more
than the previous version of the SAP
quickly now.”
Hardware applications on the older systems.
Masao Hasegawa
IBM BladeCenter S, IBM
® ®
Managing Director, Futaba Europe
BladeCenter JS12 Express blade, “Our 14 users in financial accounting
IBM BladeCenter HS22 blades, and sales controlling, for example,
IBM System Storage® DS3200, IBM benefit directly from the increased
System Storage TS2240, IBM System performance,” says Masao Hasegawa. for different server landscapes, now
Storage TS2340. “Response times have improved we can perform planned maintenance
by about 30 percent and sales and works together with IBM on a central
Software distribution transactions are processed system, and administration of business
IBM i V6R1 with integrated 'DB2 for
® ®
more quickly now.” applications is much easier and more
i' database. cost-effective.”
“We now have a substantially more
Services powerful IT infrastructure – with Masao Hasegawa concludes “The
IBM Business Partner Fritz & Macziol a lower leasing rate for the whole IBM solution provides a reliable IT
Software & Computervertrieb system. With the consolidation of foundation to help Futaba grow further
GmbH. the servers and applications to one in future. The IBM BladeCenter offers
hardware instance we have reduced maximum of performance with minimal
both energy and maintenance costs. footprint, and we have been able to
In the past maintenance costs arose consolidate all our business servers

5. “The IBM solution
provides a reliable
IT foundation to
help Futaba grow
further in future. The Business Benefits
IBM BladeCenter
offers maximum of • SAP ERP application performance
performance with has increased by about 30 percent.
minimal footprint, and
we have been able • Server maintenance and
to consolidate all our administration costs have been
business servers and cut, while energy consumption has
applications to just one been reduced by 40 percent.
hardware instance. ”
• Four older servers from different
manufacturers have been retired,
Masao Hasegawa
Managing Director, Futaba Europe and system complexity has been
reduced.
• Backup of SAP ERP and other
and applications to just one hardware
office productivity data on the
instance. The physical consolidation
JS12 and HS22 blades has been
greatly eases maintenance and
automated, increasing business
administration, and reduces energy
resilience and data security.
costs. At the same time this solution
enables our executives with up-to-the
moment, accurate data to manage
the business better, so we can sell
products more successfully.”

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