HP has successfully transitioned ASMO’s data server and application server systems to the HP rx4640 server equipped with 16 Intel Itanium 2 processors featuring 9MB L3 cache.
ASMO is a subsidiary of PT Astra International Tbk – the largest conglomerate in Indonesia and a manufacturer of vehicles linked with many leading automotive brands worldwide.
The existing server system at ASMO was operating at 70% capacity. With the expansion plan, specifically the production line for Daihatsu vehicles, production capacity is set to increase fivefold, from 2,000 to 10,000 vehicles per year. This means that related data will also increase correspondingly.
Astra Motor II (ASMO) has a demand to increase production capacity by 2.5 times to adequately meet market needs. However, upgrading the existing server infrastructure to manage these new demands would incur significant additional costs.
Thus, ASMO decided to switch its current server system to Itanium® 2 processors after calculations indicated that this transition would enhance operational efficiency as expected and fit within budget constraints.
One of the primary concerns that Taurany – CIO of ASMO – faced when upgrading the hardware infrastructure was that the chosen platform must work effectively with SAP applications at peak performance. Taurany expressed enthusiasm for the solution provided by HP and Intel.
Taurany visited the SAP center in Walldorf (Germany) to evaluate the performance of the ERP system running on the Intel Itanium architecture. The performance evaluation in Germany, along with ASMO’s successful experience with Itanium 2-based servers implemented in September 2004, solidified the decision to transition the entire ERP system ASMO was using to Intel’s user-friendly architecture.
ASMO calculated that the costs for investing in the new hardware system, transitioning applications, technical support, and maintaining the new system over the next three years would be approximately equal to the costs of merely maintaining the existing server system.
Therefore, ASMO can achieve improved operational efficiency without increasing investment costs in IT infrastructure. For Taurany, this represents a low-risk decision for both current and long-term plans for ASMO, based on the costs and efficiency of the Intel Itanium® 2 server system.
The decision to proceed with the complete system transition was made by ASMO in January 2005. Following this, Intel collaborated with HP and SAP to implement the project. With this support, detailed transition plans were completed within one month, including valuable technical insights. For example, by using HP’s Smooth Transition Migration method, ASMO was able to transfer 25TB of data in just 30 hours.
The transition of development, testing, and production environments was planned four days in advance. By reducing the time to just 30 hours, all processes were completed within a week without commencing production. This allowed the new hardware system to operate without any decrease in production output.
The server system is located at ASMO’s headquarters in Jakarta and can support all manufacturing plants spread throughout the city. Connected via a 2Mb network, ASMO can provide each plant with an information infrastructure that requires the use of the same hardware system.
The solution has proven to provide stable performance while allowing for local demand balancing with centralized control. This makes the solution highly cost-effective as a single hardware system can simultaneously accommodate multiple varying demands.
Centralized control of the IT infrastructure minimizes external maintenance costs. The company, with outsourced IT infrastructure maintenance services, does not require dedicated resources on each project while still being able to provide a satisfactory level of support for critical servers and applications.
Pham Tuan
