Panasonic

Panasonic is one of the world's premier electronics manufacturers. They make not only DVD players, televisions and dozens of other customer electronics products, but they also a supplier of electronics components. From tiny semiconductors, to DVD-ROM drivers for PCs, to flat screen plasma TV displays. Panasonic is one of the brand names of Matsushita Electronic Industrial besides National and Technics. Matsushita is based in Osaka, Japan. The company recorded consolidated sales of US$51.7 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002.

The Challenge

Panasonic supplies electronic ingredients for daily living, from vacuum cleaners to car radios. "Car media World" is the division of Panasonic Germany that manufactures car radios in its factory in Neumunster. Panasonic aimed to respond swiftly to market needs, the factory in Neumunster decided to place its entire merchandise management system on a new footing. This is because the servers at the factory had reached the limits of their capacity and had to be replaced. However the factory operates on a three-shift basis, a shutdown of the systems was out of the question. That made the task all the more challenging since the new solution had to assure absolute high availability. Finally the contract went to Glovia International of the Netherlands, a Fujitsu company, which had already supplied the software and the Chess database for the factory's existing system.

The Solution and Benefits

Prompted by their speed, scalability and power, Panasonic opted for servers from the Primepower series. The Primepower series runs under the Solaris™ Operating Environment, which offers simple administration of large file, in particular. Accomplished by means of a cluster, the new solution assures absolute high availability. As a positive by-product, the Primepower servers now provide better load distribution, in addition to their backup role.