GLOBUS

Success Story

Leading German retailer makes the move to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to increase performance and reduce hardware costs

Overview

Established 175 years ago, GLOBUS is a leading retailer in Germany with more than 20,000 employees and nearly 90 locations, including 10 in the Czech Republic. GLOBUS competes in a more than 35 markets, including food, electronics and home improvement, selling more than 100,000 products in each of its stores.

Challenge

GLOBUS had been using a proprietary UNIX* system to run its custom-developed ERP applications. Each store location had an expensive server to run its ERP applications, as well as file and print services.

With slim profit margins in the food market, the company needed to significantly reduce its IT expenditures, without sacrificing performance or reliability. By moving from a proprietary system to Linux*, GLOBUS sought to reduce both its software and hardware costs.

Novell solution

"We anticipated all sorts of problems in migrating our applications to Linux, but have been pleasantly surprised. We've had no problems at all. And with Novell now behind SUSE Linux, we know we have chosen a platform that will be around for the future."

Franz Herter
Coordinator, IT Organization
Globus

GLOBUS evaluated several Linux solutions before selecting SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The company needed a comprehensive solution that was also modular and flexible.

GLOBUS began implementing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server in 20 of its smaller locations and in a short time saw good results. The company is now rolling out SUSE Linux individually to all its 35 locations. An IT team of two can install, transfer data and test SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for a store location in less than a week.

"We had absolutely no problems with the transfer to SUSE Linux other than our own pressure to get it done quickly," said Franz Herter, IT Coordinator for GLOBUS. "Everything has worked just fine."

GLOBUS purchased nearly 100 new servers from Bull, an international IT company. Because Linux can run on inexpensive machines, the company has eliminated the need for expensive, proprietary servers.

"GLOBUS didn't move to Linux just because they thought everyone else was doing it," said Volker Magura, Business Manager at Bull GmbH. "They knew it would provide the right software and hardware solution to keep IT costs under control, while offering greater performance. For GLOBUS to remain competitive, it needs a high performance infrastructure with low ongoing IT expenses."

Each store now runs two Intel-based servers, instead of one proprietary server. While each store is decentralized, data is replicated each night to a central location. Now that each store can generate faster data to the home office, the stores are able to close more quickly each night. Employees in each store now have faster access to daily information and can respond quickly to stock the right goods in each store.

With the reliability and scalability of SUSE Linux, GLOBUS plans to implement Linux servers at its headquarters to handle millions of transactions and terabytes of data. The company is already running its custom-developed ERP applications and Oracle* databases on Linux and will soon migrate its SAP applications as well. GLOBUS also has plans to implement an open source clustering solution to ensure high availability for every server, at very little cost.

With SUSE Linux, GLOBUS can take advantage of a wide variety of open source development options and be less dependent on proprietary vendors.

"We anticipated all sorts of problems in migrating our applications to Linux, but have been pleasantly surprised," said Herter. "We've had no problems at all. And with Novell now behind SUSE Linux, we know we have chosen a platform that will be around for the future."

Results

Moving to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has given GLOBUS improved performance, while significantly reducing hardware costs. The company can now close each of its stores each night 25 percent faster to respond more quickly to business needs for the next day. A Linux platform also increases the company's development options and offers greater potential to reduce software costs.

"We love the openness of SUSE Linux," said Herter. "In the past, if we needed more performance we had to make a big hardware investment. We like the fact that now we can turn to any hardware vendor. SUSE Linux helps us keep our IT costs from getting too high for our business."