IBM Storage Supports Rakon’s International Growth Auckland

IBM Storage Supports Rakon’s International Growth Auckland, New Zealand

10 October, 2011 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announcedthat Rakon (NZX: RAK) has selected the IBM Storwize V7000 SAN as part of a strategic storage upgrade to meet the needs of its rapidly expanding international quartz crystal manufacturing business. The storage upgrade will be carried out with virtually no disruption to production, and follows the opening of a joint venture factory in China which adds to the demands on Rakon’s New Zealand-based central IT systems.

Rakon is recognised as a world leader in producing crystal oscillators for the telecommunications, GPS, defence and aeronautics industries. Manufactured by the tens of millions, every oscillator is tested before being shipped. The test data, along with the manufacturing, financial and other administrative records of Rakon’s global operations, is held in the storage area network (SAN) at its Auckland head office.

The increase in production when the new factory in Chengdu, southwest China, came on-stream in July 2011 put extra pressure Rakon’s head office IT systems including SAP, CRM and email systems. At the same time, the two existing IBM DS4700s were coming off their support contract.

After a competitive pricing analysis, Rakon chose the IBM V7000 mid range disc system to accommodate an increase in its storage needs. The combination of the ‘Easy Tier’ dynamic disc configuration, solid state drives and fast 450GB hard drives, dramatically improves performance with a data access speed boost of 60% to 100%. Storage capacity is vastly increased while the necessary rack space is cut by two thirds, reducing power and cooling costs. Redundancy provisions are also increased.

The storage migration will be managed in-house, with peer review provided by IBM. A ‘live migration’ of data was made possible by the IBM V7000’s virtualisation capability, so there is virtually no disruption to production.

“The expansion of our international operations required us to review critical parts of our IT infrastructure, including storage,” says Paul Conroy, IS Manager at Rakon. “The IBM V7000 stacked up competitively on all our cost and technology criteria. The ability to migrate without significant disruption to production was a key factor in selecting the IBM V7000.”

“As a high growth firm entering multiple offshore markets, Rakon has to be 100% confident it has scalable and robust systems in place locally to support employees, partners and customers throughout the world,” says Matt Patterson, New Zealand Manager, IBM Systems & Technology Group. “The virtualisation capabilities of the IBM V7000 are perfect for organisations such as Rakon that require a live migration. This client project is a perfect example of the benefits from IBM’s continued investment in mid-range systems.”

ENDS

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