Business challenge Höganäs Borgestad has operations in multiple countries. To raise efficiency and maintain exceptional quality, the organization set out to create a cross-group, centralized IT infrastructure. Transformation Working with Atea Sverige AB, Höganäs Borgestad deployed IBM® FlashSystem® storage to support a new virtualized IT landscape, addressing the data demands of a diverse range of applications. Business benefits: “FlashSystem provides Höganäs Borgestad AB access to data twice as Doubled fast as before, which storage performance, Building on a global means business users can helping Höganäs Borgestad react sooner to customer respond faster to customers reputation for excellence requests. By getting high-quality refractory with powerful, centralized solutions to customers 90% quickly, we contribute to cost saving compared to their competitive edge.” competing offerings with IT infrastructure Jonas Dahlgren equivalent performance Höganäs Borgestad AB (external link) is a leading developer, manufacturer CIO and provider of refractory products, installations, and turnkey solutions. Headquartered in Sweden, the Höganäs Borgestad group also has operations Höganäs Borgestad AB 2x in Norway and Finland and sales offices in Cyprus and Malaysia. growth in company size could be accommodated by existing storage landscape Share this Delivering precision “IBM FlashSystem 5000 provides the same performance as systems from other vendors that are ten Refractory materials are resistant to times the price! It packs a lot of decomposition by heat, pressure, and punch into a small footprint.” chemical attack, and retain their strength and form at high temperatures. Industries Jonas Dahlgren, CIO, Höganäs Borgestad AB including steel production and cement manufacturing depend on meticulously produced refractory materials to build production lines that can withstand Powering extreme conditions and keep workers safe. As a result, for organizations such global operations as Höganäs Borgestad, which designs, creates, and delivers refractory solutions, To support the IT operations of its there is no room for error. new consolidated group structure, Höganäs Borgestad worked with Jonas Dahlgren, CIO at IBM Business Partner Atea Sverige AB Höganäs Borgestad, explains, to create a new virtualized datacenter. “Developing refractory materials is As a core component of its new an art that takes in a range of factors infrastructure, the organization chose such as material composition, grain to deploy IBM FlashSystem 5000 size, density, thermal conductivity, storage technology. permeability, abrasion resistance and thermal expansion. Over the last two “We’ve used IBM Storage in the past, centuries, Höganäs Borgestad has and its stability has blown us away,” says refined its expertise in this area to Dahlgren. “We knew we needed that build up a customer base in more than “We wanted to make it easier for teams Höganäs Borgestad was determined same degree of robustness to enable the 70 countries.” in five different countries to collaborate to find a technology solution that would next phase of our transformation. Atea by providing centralized IT,” comments meet not only its current requirements, presented the best proposal, and we About two years ago, Höganäs Borgestad Dahlgren. “We also saw an opportunity but also its future needs. Dahlgren knew that they have the skills to deliver on made the strategic decision to merge to reduce costs and complexity. To elaborates, “It was important to us that every promise they make.” all the companies within its group under achieve these goals, we faced some any new systems we bought were easy one common brand—a move that would challenges. For example, in Norway, we to scale, as we’ve learned that lesson the With help from Atea, Höganäs Borgestad help it communicate to customers were using a cloud ERP service, while in hard way. Performance and stability were implemented its new cross-group more clearly and unlock new internal other countries we had various different also top of our priority list.” infrastructure with no impact on efficiencies. As part of this transformation, on-premises ERP systems. To bring them operations. The companies worked the organization began consolidating all together on one platform, we had together to overcome minor obstacles the IT systems used by operations in to build a versatile, high-performance along the way, as Dahlgren recalls: “Soon different countries. IT infrastructure.” after the initial installation, we found that 2 we needed to switch the SAS cards in our servers to work with the new storage. Atea helped us rectify the issue fast and, because we set up our new environment in parallel with our legacy systems, it didn’t affect the business.” Höganäs Borgestad now relies on the IBM FlashSystem storage to support a diverse IT environment including business-critical ERP applications, Microsoft SQL Server databases and a large Citrix landscape. The organization is also exploring hybrid cloud capabilities, starting with a roll-out of Office 365. “A key benefit of the IBM FlashSystem 5000 is that it is cloud-ready,” comments Dahlgren. “It’s flexible enough to accommodate the requirements of different Höganäs Borgestad companies, but it’s also a single platform for innovation. We see the move to hybrid cloud as inevitable, so it’s a Elevating the Across the group’s operations, employees “IBM FlashSystem storage is the definition real advantage that IBM FlashSystem business to are taking advantage of shorter response of ‘set it and forget it’!” says Dahlgren. technology is designed to be connected times to provide better levels of service to “We haven’t needed to touch the system to the cloud.” new heights customers. Dahlgren adds, “FlashSystem in five months. It gives us great peace provides access to data twice as fast of mind to know that IBM is keeping an Höganäs Borgestad’s IT team noticed the as before, which means business users eye on the platform remotely too—for “IBM FlashSystem storage is the effect of IBM FlashSystem technology on can react sooner to customer requests. example, we got a call one Saturday night definition of ‘set it and forget it’! performance immediately. Dahlgren says, By getting high-quality refractory warning us that there might be a potential We haven’t needed to touch the “Our technicians can now complete tasks solutions to customers quickly, we issue with one of our disks. That allowed system in five months. It gives us such as creating new virtual machines contribute to their competitive edge, us to take proactive measures to prevent great peace of mind to know that and taking snapshots at least twice as which keeps them coming back to us.” any impact on the business.” IBM is keeping an eye on the fast as before. For example, it used to platform remotely too.” take 12 minutes to run a server update; By consolidating to IBM FlashSystem Using IBM technology, it now takes just five minutes, which is a storage, Höganäs Borgestad has Höganäs Borgestad has achieved Jonas Dahlgren, CIO, Höganäs Borgestad AB saving of 58 percent. IBM FlashSystem streamlined IT management significantly. its goal of building cost-effective, 5000 provides the same performance as The organization’s IT team takes high-performance IT infrastructure systems from other vendors that are ten advantage of built-in monitoring tools for its worldwide operations. Since all times the price! It packs a lot of punch including IBM Storage Insights to save IBM FlashSystem offerings are built on into a small footprint.” time and optimize use of resources. a common software storage platform, 3 IBM Spectrum® Virtualize, the company can scale its storage landscape easily Solution components and cost-effectively, enabling it to move • IBM® FlashSystem® 5000 fast on growth opportunities. • IBM Spectrum® Virtualize Dahlgren concludes, “IBM FlashSystem • IBM Storage Insights storage removes limits to our company’s growth—we could expand to twice our current size, and the storage Take the next step infrastructure would cope. Moreover, To learn about the latest IBM FlashSystem the total cost of ownership is less than offers, please contact your IBM representative our previous storage platform, and we or IBM Business Partner, or visit: /flashoffer get more performance and functionality. Atea Sverige AB creates world-class FlashSystem is the right foundation for the IT infrastructure for its clients, helping to lay the future of Höganäs Borgestad.” foundations for a smarter and more innovative Sweden. To learn more about Atea, visit: atea.se Connect with us © Copyright IBM Corporation 2021. IBM Corporation, IBM Systems, New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY 10504 Produced in the United States of America, April 2021. IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, IBM FlashSystem and IBM Spectrum are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at “Copyright and trademark information” at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates. The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided. The client is responsible for ensuring compliance with laws and regulations applicable to it. IBM does not provide legal advice or represent or warrant that its services or products will ensure that the client is in compliance with any law or regulation.