In 2012, an international automotive enterprise was looking for a new provider for the operation of its approximately 4,000 Unix servers worldwide. Besides globally acting IT providers, matrix technology AG as a local, medium-sized supplier also participated in the six-month tender process. The provider was well-known to the customer from past opera-tions mandates and in positive rememberance and was finally authorized to take responsi-bility for the automotive manufacturer‘s Unix operation, which meant a strengthening of the location Munich.
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hanks to an extension of the scope of services compared to the old contract which had included server operation for Europe, but not for South Africa and the USA, it was possible to free up additional employees of the automotive manufac-turer for others projects and activities.At the same time, service hours were extended from previously monday to saturday, 8 am to 7 pm, to 24x7. In addition, SLA target values related to incident handling, data quality in the asset registration as well as execution times of changes and tasks were raised.
CASE STUDY IT SERVICES
UNIX OPERATION FOR
AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURER
AT A GLANCE: Industry: Automotive Founded: 1916 Headquarters: Munich Employees: ~ 110,000CHALLENGE
• minimisation of the risk of sever downtimes and coherent consequences, such as stopping belts and loss in revenue, during the transition• complex environment with various innovative, partly customer-specific Linux solutions for highly critical areas of application
• complete transfer of expertise from the old provider to the entire operations team at matrix technology AG required
• high change load during the transition because of several migration projects running parallelly (e. g. transition to a new storage provider, reorganisation of the central network
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o keep risk for the customer as low as possible during the transition, a stepwise takeover of the server environment from the old provider was chosen. An early pilot phase was included as a practical test for the following normal operation. Subsequently, matrix stepwisely resumed responsibility for the remaining servers.SOLUTION
fig. 1: project procedure
APPROACH
PreparationTo start the transition project, a rough common timeline for the migration was developed together with the customer in january 2013. This was elaborated into an extensive detailed planning during the following weeks. It stipulated that the entire environment be split into stages and that the technologically less complex systems be migrated first, to then sucessively increase complexity. Transfer of expertise
At the same time, matrix developed a method to guarantee a transfer of expertise without gap together with the old provider. After matrix had screened the existing documentation and processes in detail, whilst building its operations team at the same time, the transfer of expertise entered crunch mode in april 2013. Given the size and complexity of the environment, both the old provider and matrix were facing considerable challenges: The old provider had to convey its customer-specific knowledge to the new IT provider in a comprehensive and understandable way. matrix on the other hand had to ensure a frictionless transfer of expertise to its entire opera-tions team which was continuously growing at that time.
Pilot operations
In june, pilot operations finally started. Thereby approximately 600 Linux servers at the location Munich had to be transferred to live operation within one month.
migration
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
preparation transfer of expertise pilot stepwise migration normal operation
SUCCESS FACTORS
• realistic time and resource planning:
matrix engaged in the automotive manufacturer‘s planning right from the start,whereby a mutual procedure for the transition could be agreed quickly. Also in the subsequent normal operation, the customer‘s IT and matrix technology AG collaborate closely - be it with regard to the go live of software assets or in order to promote further developments of the environ-ment together.
• good and direct communication:
The automotive manufacturer‘s established ITIL service processes provide for well-ordered, quick and direct communication between the IT provider and the sites in Europe, South Africa and the USA. The sites‘ requirements regarding Unix operation are triggered to the provider via the automotive manufacturer‘s central ticket management tools; vice versa mat-rix technology AG immediately informs the affected local sites in case of interruptions. Not least, matrix closely stays in touch with the responsbile hardware service providers to be able to promptly induce and manage the exchange of affected hardware components in case of hardware deficiencies.
Despite the considerable challenges matrix technology AG had to face already at the beginning of the transition because of a noticeably higher change load which resulted from various parallel migration projects, all 4,000 servers could be migrated from the old provider to matrix within the initially calculated time frame in the end - and that without noteworthy downtimes.
Crucial success factors in the process were: Stepwise migration
After matrix had successfully migrated the servers affected by the pilot, approximately one thousand more servers at a time were taken over during the following months, until in september 2013 - after a nine-month transition - all about 4,000 Unix servers had gone over to matrix‘s operational responsibility. Normal operation
In normal operation, matrix technology AG makes an important contribution to the automati-sation and optimiautomati-sation of the environment.
PROJECT RESULT - BENEFIT FOR THE CUSTOMER
• frictionless migration of approx. 4,000 Unix servers from the old provider to matrix technology AG • 24x7 operation by central operations team in Munich as well as on-site support team in the USA • central change coordination
• comprehensive assistance and short lines of communication thanks to local contact persons
• provider‘s active contribution to automatisation and optimisation of operating and provisioning processes
• displacement of internal staff for other activities and projects through extended scope of services compared to the old contract
• variable cost structure: only services which actually incur are being charged
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
After the successful migration of the entire server environment to steady state normal operation, the automotive manufacturer and matrix are planning various further development for the upcoming years together in order to continously optimise business operations as well as the technical setup, e. g.• design of configuration management
• development of a new concept for software deploymenr • more cloud-oriented approach to reduce operating expenses
Lead the change: Since 2000, matrix technology AG has been supporting medium-sized companies and international corporate groups in the rapidly changing world of IT, helping them to optimise the impacts of this world on their business models. From the company‘s headquarters in Munich, around 200 permanent and freelance employees provide IT services and IT-related consultancy services to 46 countries around the world.
Based on over 3,600 man years of IT experience, matrix technology AG is able to operate its customers‘ company-relevant IT systems efficiently and with high availability, and to provide competent and reliable advice in the realisation of complex outsourcing, cloud, IT carve-out and migration projects.
