IDGC of Centre (I-Teco, SAP ERP)

The project on creation of a cloud service for operation of the resource management corporate information system (RMCIS) of IDGC of Centre company is unique for the power industry of our country. KISUR on a basis SAP ERP provides information support of business processes of financial and economic, technical, personnel activities of IDGC. The cross-platform data migration which is carried out during the project SAP is unprecedented even on a global scale: seven of 41 KISUR systems were transferred to other hardware platform without stopping of settlement process with consumers of the electric power. This project executed jointly by specialists of companies "IDGC of Centre" "I-Teco" and Fujitsu, became one of the projects on creation of a cloud service, largest in Russia, for operation of a productive system of SAP. How so difficult problem was solved and what results managed to be achieved, we talk to the advisor to director general of JSC IDGC of Centre Alexander Anatolyevich Balashov.

• What purposes were set within this project? What business needs induced to begin this project? What keyword parameters of work of KISUR and as far as they had to change?

• Within the project it was supposed to increase performance of KISUR, to increase stability of work of systems, to exclude risks of the excess financial expenses connected with lease of capacities of initial DPC. The basic need of business consisted in reduction of costs for support of hardware and software system KISUR and also in a possibility of its scaling under the KISUR expansion.

It was required to improve keyword parameters of work of KISUR: reduce response time of systems approximately four times, and backup of KISUR – in three.

• What selection terms of the supplier of the solution were? What was "linking" of I-Teco and Fujitsu companies strong?

• First of all, we had to receive the computing powers and OS comparable to like those in initial DPC. Presence at the supplier of experience and examination in so large-scale projects was of great importance and also own commercial DPC with ready infrastructure for the fastest deployment of new infrastructure under KISUR – it was required for minimization of time of creation of DPC and migration of KISUR.

By itself, telecommunication infrastructure of DPC and integration with the telecom operators working with "IDGC the Center" (Rostelecom, Transtelecom) were necessary for seamless inclusion of DPC in the existing corporate network IDGC.

Besides, decision-making was influenced by readiness of contractors to execute deployment of starting DPC (the first stage of the project) long before holding competitive procedures and the choice of the supplier, i.e., in fact, to undertake certain financial risks.

As partners in this project I-Teco companies (general contractor) and the producer of computing systems and DWH of Fujitsu (subcontractor of the project) acted. Main advantages of project implementation by these companies became successful experience of similar projects in IDGC Holding (on the equipment of Fujitsu), presence at contractors of all core competencies, computing powers, ready engineering infrastructure for fast creation of DPC and also presence at all partners of experience in projects with SAP.

• Tell, please, about the main stages of project implementation. By what requirements in terms of business of IDGC of Centre restrictions on migration terms were defined? What subsystems of KISUR demanded the maximum voltage of forces at transfer on the new platform?

• In September, 2011 the management of IDGC of Centre made strategic decision on transfer of KISUR on the basis of SAP ERP in a new data processing center as the enterprise was faced the need to increase reliability and performance of work of KISUR and also to considerably reduce current expenses of operation. Several scenarios of transfer of a system to the new platform were considered, by the best it was recognized offered by I-Teco company together with Fujitsu. The requirement to minimize a KISUR system stop for the period of migration and input in commercial operation became a key factor of the choice when carrying out the tender.

Taking into account these requirements contractors of the project jointly with specialists of IDGC of Centre defined two stages of transfer of KISUR on the new platform. At the initial stage of the project in a data processing center TrustInfo (which is included into I-Teco group) the starting computer system identical to platforms of initial DPC was constructed. It was made with the purpose to exclude long converting of data at migration of KISUR. Thanks to it it was succeeded to minimize time of a stop of the KISUR productive systems for territorial homogeneous migration and to ensure actually smooth operation of branches "IDGC of Centre".

At the second stage according to requirements of SAP the cloud service on the basis of high-end of the Fujitsu FlexFrame systems on which cross-platform data migration of SAP was carried out was deployed. The project is unique on terms of accomplishment not only for our country, but even on the international standards. In ten days migration of 41 KISUR systems, seven of which were transferred to essentially other operating system and a hardware platform without stopping of settlement process with consumers of the electric power, was made. The considerable merit in it along with specialists of Fujitsu and I-Teco belongs also to the staff of Arteks OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY company. Thanks to their highly skilled and extremely to responsible actions process of migration was complete in record time.

Upon completion of all processes the staff of IDGC of Centre could get to work with the data transferred to DPC TrustInfo without delay. The success of the project was confirmed by its results: response time of the KISUR systems, key for business of IDGC of Centre (on some systems was considerably reduced – many times), operating expenses on operation more than twice were reduced, besides, the guaranteed stock of computing powers under future development of KISUR is received. � What today configuration of program and hardware components of a complex? What its potential in terms of scaling, increase in number of users, volumes of the processed information? At the expense of what will "elasticity" of a cloud based on DPC TrustInfo be provided?

• The complex is constructed based on the solution Fujitsu FlexFrame for SAP and includes servers of standard architecture of PRIMERGY (a total quantity – 52), storage system of the class high-end Eternus DX8700 and a specialized software of FlexFrame for SAP. Gross performance of all servers of a complex exceeds 1.000.000 SAPS, the capacity of DWH – 122 Tbyte.

The existing complex has a stock on performance and volume not less than 50% that gives the chance as appropriate to increase both the number of users, and volume of the processed information without change of structure of a complex. The architecture of a complex allows to increase ten times a minimum computing resources and practically in as much capacity and performance of DWH.

The solution Fujitsu FlexFrame for SAP represents the ready-made infrastructure solution for creation of a private cloud for SAP applications which provides all main advantages of cloud infrastructures: selection of resources for SAP applications on demand, flexible redistribution of resources between applications, providing required SLA (performance, capacity, availability).

• In what degree, in your opinion, the problem of information security support of the deployed cloud service is solved?

• In this project the service for the system of SAP was deployed in a private cloud. Access to services is provided through allocate circuits. Security of the solution is defined by the common decisions of information security of IDGC company.

• How service support and condition monitoring of KISUR on the platform TrustInfo are organized? What base characteristics recorded within SLA?

• For ensuring required level of maintenance of a hardware-software complex the Fujitsu company within the signed contract performs technical support of the solution. Maintenance includes regular monitoring of systems, repair and replacement of hardware components, maintenance of the system software. Each level of support is described in detail, with indication of a response time of a support service and recovery time of a hardware-software complex.

• What further development of the project? To what subsystems of KISUR migration still is necessary?

• Regarding IDGC of Centre migration of KISUR is finished. But the TrustInfo center has the good potential for placement of any other systems of IDGC Holding.

Source: Connect!