D. Swarovski & Co.

---

IT Consolidation with Server Virtualization at Swarovski

Introduction

In the Swarovski Group and its Europe-wide network of branch offices, each location had an IT scenario of its own - making administration costly and labor-intensive. To establish a central point of management, the company decided to create an end-to-end IT environment.

After receiving professional and extensive consulting from Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Siemens Business Services, Swarovski launched a server consolidation project based on system virtualization - a stroke of genius with an enormous impact: One PRIMERGY server now handles the entire workload once processed by up to 20 servers. This increase in efficiency also includes simplified IT management, faster response times and better resource planning.

For more than a hundred years, Swarovski, the family-owned Austrian company based in Wattens, Tyrol, has been the world’s leading brand for crystal. Its product range includes crystal jewelry and semi-finished products for the fashion, jewelry and lighting industries, as well as crystal gift and collectors' items and home accessories. Swarovski also demonstrates its design expertise with its two accessories and jewelry lines, Daniel Swarovski Paris and Swarovski Jewelry.

Since 1995, visitors have been able to experience the phenomenon of crystal in many shapes and forms at the Swarovski Crystal Worlds. The Swarovski Group also owns Tyrolit®, a producer of grinding and dressing tools, and Swarovski Optik, which manufactures precision optical equipment for hunting and nature observation.

In 2004, Swarovski generated consolidated sales of EUR 1.83 billion with around 16,000 employees.

The Requirements of Swarovski Group: Consistent IT management at the branch offices

D. Swarovski & Co. is headquartered in Swarovskistrasse, Wattens/Tyrol, the center of the Group’s business and decision-making network. To improve efficiency, the company wanted to create a central structure for the information technology at its branch offices, which was still operated and managed separately by each branch office. The difficulty with autonomous servers in practice was that every change to the overall system and server configuration, or software updates (for example Microsoft® Windows patches), had to be carried out locally. Administrators needed to be dispatched to the field because there was no other means of accessing the systems. The consequence: A huge time-consuming workload, high travel expenses and a lack of service levels. Furthermore, Swarovski was also dissatisfied about the fact that a constant presence of specialists for the many servers (up to 20) at the branch offices could not be maintained at the sites, and that computing capacities were in some cases utilized only to a small extent. These factors influenced the decision to implement a solution for integrating the branch offices and consolidating the server landscapes.

The Challenge

Swarovski has trusted the expertise of Fujitsu Siemens Computers for many years when it comes to optimizing IT. This project also involved the Austrian arm of our partner Siemens Business Services. Together with this IT service provider, an analysis was conducted to determine what would be the right solution for setting up central IT management to ensure maximum efficiency. The solution of choice was comprehensive virtualization.

And this would be possible with VMware ESX Server and PRIMERGY systems to deliver high levels of performance and reliability for centralized IT tasks. A particularly useful aid in the decision-making process was the collaboration of our Competence Centers in Vienna and Paderborn, as well as a workshop that was held especially for the customer. The findings on the effect of optimization completely convinced the customer. Implementation of the solution was set in motion and the new systems installed as part of the rollout.

Solution: One PRIMERGY rack server with VMware replaces up to 20 physical servers

The system landscape at Swarovski has been pared back considerably. PRIMERGY RX servers with Intel® Xeon™ technology now handle the workload that used to require a large number of servers. In conjunction with the machine software VMware ESX, one PRIMERGY offers virtual space for domain controllers, databases, intranet servers, virus scanners, test environments, RDB terminal servers and Web conferencing application servers. At headquarters in Wattens, two PRIMERGY systems recently took over the services that used to be provided by 20 servers and are utilized up to 60 percent. Optimization at the branch offices is on a similar scale. The network and system administrators are very pleased. The fact that the servers can be administered centrally with a remote function means that Europe-wide management is in their hands. In addition, travel expenses are minimized. The operating system can be kept up-to-date across the board, resources are utilized better, and it is possible to respond much more quickly overall.

Customer Satisfaction

“Swarovski and Fujitsu Siemens Computers - the two just go together. We value their reliable, professional and personal approach to work, their great flexibility and extremely good quality at a reasonable price.”

- Elmar Neumann, Network and System Administrator, D. Swarovski & Co.