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Servers and Storage Technology for the Adaptive Infrastructure

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Issue 1/2006

Blades for the Swiss Army Knife

If the name Victorinox doesn’t mean anything, then Swiss Army Knife will. Faced with a system bottleneck after switching to an ERP solution, the producer of the legendary pocket tool decided to seek a new IT server solution.

Found everywhere from kitchen cupboards to the toolkit on space shuttles, the Swiss Army Knife has become a worldwide synonym for quality and versatility. Based in Ibach in the canton of Schwyz, the 122-year-old company produces more than 55,000 Swiss Army Knives and pocket tools per day, as well as 45,000 household and professional knives.

When the switch to a new enterprise resource planning system caused an acute bottleneck on the Citrix Terminal Server side, Victorinox decide to switch to a more flexible infrastructure by implementing an HP BladeSystem. The company identified the solution as the preferred one after conducting a search with first frame networks ag., Victorinox’s IT outsourcing company.

While a solution to the short-term capacity bottleneck had to be bridged, Victorinox wanted to ensure that the architecture and technology it selected could keep up with the future server requirements of the company – criteria that the BladeSystem met. The solution was also appealing because it met the stringent availability and energy consumptions requirements of Victorinox.

Truly cutting-edge

Victorinox opted for an initial set of four HP ProLiant BL20p, supplied with redundant power and network connections via the blade enclosure. The entire implementation process only took one month from the point of decision.

“HP’s BladeSystem architecture is just what we were looking for. Based on the positive experience we’ve had, we’ll be forging ahead in expanding our server infrastructure”, said Peter Elsener, head of IT at Victorinox, shortly after the implementation.

In February 2006, the company extended the BladeSystem by six servers, and further expansion is already planned. In addition to the Citrix Terminal Servers, the blades run other services such as databases, special applications and web servers.

Elsener was enthusiastic about the BladeSystem. “The flexibility of the solution completely won us over. HP’s BladeSystem is extremely compact and provides outstanding protection against failure. Compared to the dedicated server solution, this solution offers almost infinite scalability, so that capacity bottlenecks won’t occur in the future. The new infrastructure meets our needs perfectly.”

“HP’s BladeSystem architecture is just what we were looking for. Based on the positive experience we’ve had, we’ll be forging ahead in expanding our server infrastructure.”
- Peter Elsener,
Head of IT at Victorinox