Lekkerland Nederland has relied on the reliability of IBM Power Systems for many years. To respond to the rapidly changing market conditions, the wholesale and logistics service provider chose to switch to Simac Cloud|Power. The migration to this private cloud solution from Simac went flawlessly. “The match between Lekkerland Netherlands and Simac is just very good,” says Lekkerland.
Lekkerland Nederland supplies convenience stores at gas stations, train stations, airports and other locations where large numbers of people pass through and want to consume on-the-go. The wholesaler is part of the REWE Group and, in addition to the Netherlands, operates in three more countries: Germany, Belgium and Spain. It is headquartered in Frechen, Germany, close to Cologne, which is also home to a large IT department.
“Wherever possible, we have organized our IT services on a European scale. But we also have some IT services that we buy only in the Netherlands and Belgium and that are provided by the Dutch IT team. That has historically grown that way.”
Reliability and stability
Joop is responsible for the Dutch ICT Operations Team. The main application for which this team is responsible is the ERP and WMS system that has been developed in-house and used in the Netherlands and Belgium for thirty years. The fact that this system runs on IBM Power Systems, IBM's powerful servers, results in great reliability and stability. “We actually never suffer from failures or outages. IBM's products have proven themselves for decades,” Joop states.
To reduce the chance of failure to virtually zero, Lekkerland Nederland has two identical data centers. If one data center experiences a problem, the other takes over.
“We developed and implemented this twin data center concept with Simac a long time ago. It still works flawlessly. So when we were looking for a partner to manage the data center storage in 2016, we ended up with Simac again. We were looking for an IT service provider large enough to provide 24x7 support and yet flexible. The match between Lekkerland Nederland and Simac is just very good.”
Simac Cloud|Power
A number of servers have reached the end of their lifespan and need to be replaced. To take the infrastructure to the next level, Lekkerland Netherlands chose to switch to Simac Cloud|Power: Simac's private cloud solution based on IBM technology. “Actually, this is a similar solution to what we have now, but on a larger scale with more clients using IBM Power Systems. Because of this switch, we no longer have to invest in that machinery ourselves. Moreover, this way we remain flexible in our choices with a view to the future.”
With Simac, Lekkerland Netherlands has a partner familiar with both operations and the IT landscape. “The migration to the private cloud remains complicated. We investigated several options and Simac Cloud|Power came out on top. It was nice that Simac already handles much of the management and could transfer it to their own platform. That made the project a lot easier,” Joop explains.
Flawless migration
Switching to Simac's private cloud solution offers more advantages. Lekkerland Nederland now only has to pay for the processing power and storage capacity that is actually consumed. “Previously, if I needed more processors or memory, I had to order it from Simac and have them build it in. And if the components no longer fit in the existing server, I had to buy a new one,” Joop explains. “Now when we see a spike in orders coming, all I have to do is call and Simac can scale up within a day. And when the peak is over, I can scale down again with the same ease.”
The migration went smoothly without a single complaint from headquarters or the three distribution centers. Joop knows the factors that made this success possible.
“We had an excellent project manager who thoroughly prepared the migration for both Lekkerland Netherlands and Simac. In addition, we had excellent specialists for execution of the migration. Not only specialists in IBM Power Systems, but also, for example, specialists in connectivity who established the connection with Simac Cloud|Power. The entire migration could not have gone better.”
