About Jan Linders
Jan Linders opened its first supermarket in Gennep, The Netherlands, in 1963. Today, Jan Linders has 48 stores throughout the southeast region of the country, and employs more than 2,300 people. The company strives to lead the market in delivering superior value for money to its customers.
Challenge
As a retailer of fresh and frozen foods, Jan Linders depends on efficient internal processes to keep its stores stocked with quality goods. To help manage its supply chain operations, the company uses DistRetail ERP software from Dutch company VCD and MLS Warehouse Management System software from Fujitsu Services. These applications were previously running under SCO UnixWare on aging hardware, and availability was an issue as the business grew.
Aiming to increase the availability of these core systems through a clustered server solution, Jan Linders looked to renew its server infrastructure, with cost reduction as a secondary objective. The company wanted a stable and highly available platform that would provide excellent flexibility and scalability for the future, at a low total cost of ownership.
Novell Solution
Jan Linders determined that Linux would be the best operating system for its requirements. The company selected Novell Open Enterprise Server to extend the capabilities of Linux with its suite of tightly integrated, enterprise-ready network applications on top of SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server.
Working with AAC Cosmos–awarded European Novell Solution Provider of the Year in 2005–Jan Linders migrated its ERP and warehouse management systems to separate Open Enterprise Server clusters on new HP servers. Novell Clustering Services software, an integral component of Open Enterprise Server, links the two servers in each cluster, enabling each to fail over to the other in the event of unforeseen downtime.
"Coming from UNIX, Linux was a logical choice for our company, offering lower licence costs and reduced dependence on a single vendor," said Marcel Gommans, IT Manager at Jan Linders. "We chose Novell Open Enterprise Server because it offered the advantages of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server"stability, flexibility and low cost of ownership"with built-in clustering and user management services from Novell. In more than six months of production, we have not experienced any downtime."
In addition to its core systems, Jan Linders runs a variety of business and office productivity applications on Microsoft Windows. Using Novell eDirectory™ a component of Open Enterprise Server, the company manages all its users across both Linux and Windows from a single point of control.
"When you work with eDirectory, every user you create under Windows is automatically available in Linux–so you don't need to do everything twice," said Gommans. "This is another example of how Open Enterprise Server provides useful services built around SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, helping us to manage our systems and users more easily."
Jan Linders took full advantage of the skills and experience of AAC Cosmos when implementing Open Enterprise Server, particularly during the integration of its Windows environment into eDirectory.
"AAC Cosmos showed excellent knowledge of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and were quickly up to speed with the new Open Enterprise Server technology, too," said Gommans. "Initially, we had some authentication issues between Windows and Linux, and the combined effort of Novell and AAC Cosmos solved the problem. We are very satisfied with the ongoing service from AAC Cosmos, and we find them to be very creative in proposing solutions across the entire spectrum of our IT requirements."
Results
With the Novell Open Enterprise Server solution, Jan Linders has a highly available and easy-to-manage platform for its vital ERP and warehouse management systems. Zero downtime since implementation translates into excellent support for business processes and, ultimately, a more reliable service to in-store customers.
"Novell has given us a very stable platform on which to support our most important business processes," said Gommans. "The clustering functionality that enables very high availability is built into Open Enterprise Server, so there is no additional licensing cost or management overhead."
Novell eDirectory enables Jan Linders to manage all users in a single place, whether they are part of the Linux or Windows environments. Centralized management has reduced its user management workload by 50 percent and ensures consistency across both environments.
Jan Linders is now steadily migrating other servers in its network to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. "Our Open Enterprise Server licence entitles us to do installations of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, so we can now simply deploy another Linux server when we have a new requirement," said Gommans. "As we standardise our infrastructure on Linux, we anticipate a reduction in the complexity and cost of support, and greater flexibility in choosing new solutions."