END USER INSIGHT
“Customers want to bring their car to
service and it cannot be carried out due to
a system outage – definitely a worst-case
scenario,” explained Friedwagner.
That’s why the team wanted to address
the queries: How to improve infrastructure
reliability? How to reduce downtimes to
an absolute minimum?
In the era of digitalisation and increasing
complexity, software is the key element to
drive innovation, creating new challenges
for Porsche Informatik. The company was
looking for a solution to handle larger
capacity and additional IT requirements
with the same number of IT employees.
Within just four months, a new VMware
SDDC platform with computing,
storage and network virtualisation was
implemented to meet the requirements of
the future.
Existing products from the old platform
were brought up and running. In phase
two and three with a duration of 12
months further components were
migrated into the system.
With VMware vRealize Automation,
time-to-market was significantly
reduced. The cloud automation tool
provides real-time test systems for
internal and external developers.
Infrastructure costs and manpower
can be saved due to fewer tickets to IT
administrators, fewer emails back and
forth and shorter waiting times.
Performance benefits of VMware’s SDDC
were immediately visible.
With the new solutions in place, Porsche
Informatik’s software developers are
benefiting from real-time test systems
which in turn has accelerated time-
to-market for the company’s software
products. The increased automation
of complex IT tasks has optimised
the efficiency of service provisioning,
operational management and IT agility.
With security a priority, the company is
using NSX Data Center to protect its IT
infrastructure. With micro-segmentation
enabled by NSX, Porsche Informatik can
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
provide each virtual machine with its own
firewall and hence prevent the lateral
spread of malware.
“As a leading automotive retail group,
we are the target of criminal hackers.
That’s why the innovative firewall concept
as part of the VMware project was so
important for us,” said Lisa Siegesleitner,
Security Specialist at Porsche Informatik.
The corresponding firewall rules were
defined by VMware vRealize Network
Insight providing detailed, graphically well-
prepared analyses for the entire network.
vRealize Automation and vRealize
Orchestrator increase efficiency by
automating complex IT tasks and
optimizing efficiency of service
provisioning, operational management
and IT agility.
Johannes Strasser, Virtualization Architect
at Porsche Informatik, added: “In order to
meet the performance requirements and
keep downtimes to a minimum, Porsche
Informatik relies on the best and most
flexible storage solution currently available
based on hyper-converged infrastructures,
VMware vSAN. This makes it possible
to respond individually to customer
requirements and meet Service Level
Agreements (SLA).
“In addition, vSAN enables an autonomous
disaster concept across different data
centre locations.”
Results and impact
The aim of the project has been to
provide a strong foundation for Porsche
Informatik’s software developers and
employees in order to drive digitalisation
of the automotive industry. With its
georedundant structure, VMware’s
solutions ensure availability of processing
power at both locations.
Bottlenecks have been eliminated
and a high-performance and agile
infrastructure is available 24/7.
Increased system efficiency through
automated processes balances growing
demand for new software solutions.
With its advanced and smart solutions,
Porsche Informatik is supporting
Porsche Holding in maintaining its
leading and progressive position in the
automotive retail business. Investing
in this new infrastructure means
investing in new technologies to expand
competitive advantage.
This modernisation project created a
strong foundation for container as a
service, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data or
Virtual Reality.
Looking ahead
Taking stock of the entire VMware project,
Friedwagner said: “In the long term, our
main concern is to reduce complexity –
and VMware solutions fit perfectly due
to their high degree of integration. No
other company was able to offer us this
technological advantage.”
He added: “VMware’s solutions are the
engine powering our infrastructure.”
Mega trends in the automotive industry
such as e-drive, sharing economy,
connected cars and progressing
digitalisation require a flexible and
reliable infrastructure foundation at
Porsche Informatik.
The software-defined data centre is an
important step in this direction.
Further topics Peter Friedwagner and his
team want to consider in the future are
increase usage of container platforms and
development of Porsche IT products in co-
creation with customers.
From an internal point of view Porsche
Informatik wants to enhance its
working culture with product-oriented,
self-responsible team structures and
innovative working environments.
Porsche Informatik has worked with
VMware for 15 years. It has created
a software-defined data centre with
VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, VMware
NSX Data Center, VMware vRealize Suite,
VMware vRealize Network Insight and
VMware vRealize Orchestrator. ◊
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