Bundesanstalt Statistik Österreich

Success Story

Statistik Austria chose SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as the platform for its Web services, including the corporate Web site, online applications, portals, Java-based online questionnaires and statistical systems. Running on an IBM mainframe, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server gives Statistik Austria high reliability, flexibility, scalability and security across all Web-based systems.

Overview

Bundesanstalt Statistik Österreich (Statistik Austria) is responsible for collating, publishing and preserving official statistics on virtually every aspect of life in the country: population, education, the economy, public health, industrial activity, civil aviation, tourism, agriculture, energy and more. The federal agency is based in Vienna and employs approximately 850 staff.

Challenge

Statistik Austria was an early adopter of Web technologies, taking advantage of the Internet's suitability for distributing tailored information to large numbers of people at low cost. Starting from a simple Web site offering statistical information, documents and reports for download, the federal agency has since introduced several interactive tools, including online questionnaires, application forms and portals for gathering information on trade.

As data volumes and user numbers grew, and as Statistik Austria introduced more interactive services, a proprietary UNIX system the organisation was using to host its Web services began to struggle under the load. Statistik Austria required a new platform that would offer better scalability and greater ease of management, combined with excellent stability and security.

Statistik Austria had plans to further extend its Web presence and create more online services for citizens and businesses, and needed to ensure that its infrastructure could handle the anticipated growth.

Novell solution

"SUSE Linux Enterprise Server provides a stable platform for our Web services, and the high availability means that we spend very little time fixing problems."

Peter Wesel
Chief organizer IT
Statistik Austria

Following a successful pilot project using Linux on an IBM mainframe to host an HTTP server and Java applications, Statistik Austria chose SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as its new strategic platform for Web services.

At the moment, Statistik Austria runs 35 SUSE Linux Enterprise environments on a z/VM virtualisation layer on an IBM mainframe, which also hosts traditional mainframe systems on z/OS. Statistik Austria uses IBM WebSphere Application Server to serve Java applications and the open source Apache HTTP server, while all data for the Web-based systems is managed by DB2 running on z/OS.

"Our entire Web environment is running on the IBM mainframe, with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server performing the HTTP and application serving tasks, and the backend data managed on z/OS," said Peter Wesel, Chief Organizer IT, Statistik Austria. "SUSE Linux Enterprise is the ideal platform for our needs, offering stability, flexibility, scalability and easy management."

Using the clone function in z/VM, Statistik Austria can set up new SUSE Linux Enterprise virtual servers very rapidly, making it faster, easier and less costly to launch new services or create test environments. The high-speed virtual Ethernet connections (HiperSockets) inside the mainframe ensure rapid and secure exchange of data between the database on z/OS and the Web-based systems on SUSE Linux Enterprise.

By keeping the backend data on a different software platform from its Web services - though still on the same physical system - Statistik Austria is easily able to deactivate ports, giving a considerable boost to security.

"As a federal agency, we need to take careful steps to ensure the security of data - much of the underlying data we hold is commercially sensitive," said Wesel. "We are very satisfied with the robustness of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and the ease of applying security policies. Combined with the traditional security of the mainframe, SUSE Linux Enterprise is an ideal platform for secure Web services."

Results

"SUSE Linux Enterprise is the ideal platform for our needs, offering stability, flexibility, scalability and easy management."

Peter Wesel
Chief organizer IT
Statistik Austria

Statistik Austria is currently registering between 3,000 and 3,500 unique visitors per day on its Web site, generating around 250,000 hits. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on the mainframe provides a robust, high-performance platform, enabling Statistik Austria to offer a very high level of service to its users. The federal agency can dynamically allocate the computing resources of the mainframe to different virtual Linux servers as demand changes, ensuring fast response to spikes in traffic with no disruption and without any need to implement new hardware.

"SUSE Linux Enterprise Server provides a stable platform for our Web services, and the high availability means that we spend very little time fixing problems," said Wesel. "The operating system is generally easy to administrate, and gives us a great deal of flexibility to meet changing demands for data delivery."

The built-in security offered by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server helps Statistik Austria to keep sensitive data inaccessible to external users and to monitor intrusion attempts.

Statistik Austria has recently successfully completed a re-launch of its entire Internet presence using a third-party content management system, and will introduce new search capabilities and a larger number of portals.

"We have continuously engaged external partners to test our online security measures, and SUSE Linux Enterprise performs well in this regard," said Wesel. "Equally, we are confident that it is a robust platform on which to build our future Web capabilities."