Business challenge

Companies around the world rely on IT services from Arvato Systems to keep their business ahead of the game. How could it give clients the rapid performance they demanded, without breaking the bank?

Transformation

Arvato Systems uses IBM Db2 with BLU Acceleration® to provide clients with a rock-solid database platform that delivers strong performance for critical SAP workloads, as well as taxing analytics jobs.

Results

Up to 93%

faster query runtimes for one client, helping unlock insights more rapidly

Low

licensing costs help clients maintain healthy profit margins

Boosts

clients’ competitiveness by driving faster, more informed decision-making

Business challenge story

Unlocking the value of big data

In a world that is becoming increasingly digitized, data has moved to the front and center of the race for competitive advantage. To stay on the leading edge, organizations must go further than simply managing data volumes—they need to dig deep into enterprise information and act fast on the insights it holds.

To help master this transformation, many companies turn to Arvato Systems—a global IT specialist with decades of experience in supporting customers with expertly tailored solutions and services.

Martin Heitkämper, SAP Management Consultant at Arvato Systems, elaborates: “We help customers to unlock the potential of their enterprise data, delivering rapid, reliable analysis and reporting that helps them to stay ahead of the competition.”

As a player in an ever-evolving IT services market, Arvato Systems must constantly innovate in order to differentiate itself from competitors, and keep up with changing trends and customer expectations.

Martin Heitkämper continues: “Our customers can’t afford to stand still—and neither can we. They are always looking for ways to run faster and more cost-effectively, and we need to deliver solutions that allow them to achieve this, or we risk being overtaken by other providers.”

IBM Db2 has never let us down—it delivers great reliability and excellent performance—and that’s why we continue to use it to this day.

—Martin Heitkämper,SAP Management Consultant,Arvato Systems

Transformation story

Next-generation technology

To keep its business on the cutting edge, Arvato Systems continually invests in leading technology systems. This includes IBM Db2, which the company has used for more than 30 years.

Martin Heitkämper explains: “Our history with Db2 goes back decades. IBM Db2 has never let us down—it delivers great reliability and excellent performance at a very competitive cost—and that’s why we continue to use it to this day.”

Arvato Systems’ customers can rely on Db2 to support a range of mission-critical workloads, including a host of SAP environments. The company has recently upgraded to the latest version of Db2—taking advantage of enhanced capabilities such as Db2 pureScale® and IBM BLU Acceleration to supercharge scalability and performance.

“IBM is continuously developing the platform and that helps us stay at the forefront and take advantage of the latest database technology,” remarks Martin Heitkämper. “For instance, with pureScale we can seamlessly increase and reduce capacity as customer needs change. This enables us to guarantee predictable performance even when demand spikes, and ensure that we are never over-provisioning client environments—helping keep costs down.”

Arvato’s clients largely take advantage of BLU Acceleration to support SAP Business Warehouse and SAP Solution Manager environments, streamlining application workload and speeding data access.

Martin Heitkämper adds: “IBM BLU Acceleration allows us to process data at lightning speed, giving our clients incredibly fast answers to their analytics queries. And as BLU Acceleration is optimized for SAP applications, delivering greater performance with fewer resources, our clients running SAP on Db2 can get more out of their investment.”

With the latest version of Db2, Arvato Systems is also perfectly positioned to help clients make the move to the cloud. Martin Heitkämper says: “More and more of our clients are showing interest in cloud services, and Db2 is proving to be a valuable asset here. As the platform spans both on-premises and cloud environments, it’s easy for customers to bring their applications and workloads into the cloud, whether they want the benefits of a hybrid cloud or a private cloud.”

Results story

Reaching new heights of success

By taking advantage of Db2’s leading performance, Arvato Systems can empower customers with the ultra-fast, detailed insight they need to drive smarter decision-making and run better businesses.

Martin Heitkämper comments: “Many customers who have moved to the latest version of Db2 have seen great performance enhancements. For one of our clients, a manufacturer, we were able to shorten the runtime for one query from 15 seconds to under one second, which is 93 percent faster than before. We took another of their queries down from 19 seconds to 10 seconds—a 47 percent improvement. We have many more examples of clients seeing similar performance gains, even on standard functionality.

“The ability to analyze huge amounts of data quickly and thoroughly enables decision-makers to spot new trends and seize opportunities earlier, strengthening their company’s competitive advantage.”

Additionally, trusting in a rock-solid database platform like Db2 means that customers can count on high levels of availability for their data.

“Reliability is another big plus point with IBM Db2,” notes Martin Heitkämper. “Many of our customers have mission-critical operations relying on their database, and can’t afford for it to go down, even for the shortest amount of time. With Db2 we can ensure continuous availability of critical data—and that’s something you can’t put a price on.”

Arvato Systems’ relentless commitment to innovation and improvement helps its customers to get the most out of their IT systems, and helps the service provider stay ahead in a fiercely competitive industry.

Martin Heitkämper concludes: “With IBM, we can continue to bring cutting-edge capabilities within easy reach of our clients—helping them run better businesses, and helping Arvato Systems stay on track for success in today’s ultra-competitive IT services market.”

About Arvato Systems

Global IT specialist Arvato Systems supports major companies through digital transformation. The company employs more than 3,000 people in over 25 locations with in-depth technology expertise, industry knowledge and a strong focus on customer requirements. Working as a team, Arvato Systems develops innovative IT solutions, transitions its clients into the cloud, integrates digital processes and takes on IT systems operation and support.

Solution components

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