Customer case studies

The business need was simple: a robust and cost effective IT infrastructure that would primarily support ERP & MS Exchange. BPL also required suitable hardware to manage other basic functions like security and storage.

While the most of the competing hardware vendors proposed the traditional Rack Servers, IBM had a unique value proposition – consolidation on IBM BladeCenter and Total Storage. A single Blade chassis could consolidate all the following servers at Sanyo:

• Production ERP Servers (Database & Application Servers)
• MS Exchange Servers for Mail Collaboration
• Other Infrastructure Servers like Fire Wall, AntiVirus, Intrusion detection

In short, one IBM BladeCentre could replace 14 rack servers proposed by other vendors… a truly integrated environment that is easily manageable and economically viable for the customer.

IBM´s BladeCenter servers are designed to take less time to install, fewer people to maintain and cost less than a traditional server solution, helping reduce IT infrastructure costs. The advantage of physical server consolidation on blades and storage consolidation in form DS4300 was quite stupendous.

BPL chose IBM Blade Center Chassis with BladeCenterTM HS20 (a 2-way Intel Blade) and IBM Total Storage DS4300 Storage Server. IBM consolidated the following applications onto the single chassis:

• SAP Application Servers on Cluster
• Solomon MRP Application Servers
• Terminal Servers
• Business Portal Servers
• Firewall Servers
• Microsoft Exchange Servers
• Domain Controller Servers
• Infrastructure Edge Servers like Backup, Software Patch Management, Antivirus Management, Network & Infrastructure Management.
• Storage Management on RAID 5 with 10 K RPM & RAID 0+1 with 15 K RPM Groups.

With a strong belief in delivering cutting edge technology to the customers, Sanyo believed in a robust, scalable infrastructure that would support their business needs. IBM´s server and storage consolidation solution ensured enhanced scalability and freedom from redundancy. Some of the key benefits are:

• Lowest Total Cost of Ownership – made possible by lowering not only the administration costs but the cooling, power and space costs also.
• Advanced Manageability – Ability to control the entire set of servers from a single console with the help of IBM Director
• Investment Protection – provided by the single consistent BladeCenter infrastructure which can accommodate a 2-way Intel Blade (HS20), a 4-way Intel Blade (HS40), a Power PC Blade (JS20) or an AMD Blade (LS20) inside the same chassis.
• High Availability – A perfect ‘no single point of failure’ solution provided only on IBM eServer BladeCenter just to fit the demanding uptime needs for the mission critical mail and ERP servers.

The flagship company, BPL Limited was incorporated in 1963 as a private limited company . The company further expanded into such electronic products as medical systems and equipments, powerline carrier communication equipments, copiers, monitors etc. Making its foray into consumer electronics in 1982, BPL quickly established itself as one of India’s most trusted consumer durable brands. Huge investment in manufacturing, marketing & distribution infrastructure, and brand building have made BPL a leader in the consumer durable industry. BPL today enjoys the highest brand awareness amongst consumer electronics brands and also has one of the highest preference shares in the CTV industry.

SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. is one of the world's major consumer electronics companies. Leading the way in innovations that expand the scope of multimedia product technology, SANYO continues to advance business enterprise development supplying world-class electronic products to satisfy rapidly evolving markets. SANYO's businesses cover a broad range of multimedia and information systems, home appliances, commercial equipment, electronic devices, batteries and other products. SANYO's net sales in the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2004, amounted to 2,508 billion yen (US$22.2 billion). The SANYO group is truly an international organization, comprising 84 manufacturing companies, 37 sales companies and 39 other companies worldwide.

The two joint venture partners have had a relationship since 1982 and SANYO has provided latest technologies to BPL for colour televisions, refrigerators, compressors, washing machines, components, alkaline batteries etc. The BPL brand, sales, distribution, service, marketing and manufacturing infrastructure and SANYO´s economies of scale, global base, research and development, state-of-the-art technologies will propel the joint venture company to greater heights in the fast growing colour television market in India. The new joint venture between BPL and SANYO will start with colour televisions and soon explore entry into other consumer electronics product areas in India.

SANYO believes that its entry into India in a strategic alliance with BPL is a major step in SANYO´s strategy to enter new international markets. SANYO with BPL desire to achieve number one status in the Indian consumer electronics market.