ARA Assistance – Independent, powerful, connected with Fujitsu and IBM

ARA Assistance – Independent, powerful, connected with Fujitsu and IBM.

ARA GmbH Auto und Reise Assistance is on-hand offering support in the event of breakdowns, accidents and trips, handling claims management for insurance companies, providing a telephone hotline and taking on customer management for companies such as the ARCD Auto- und Reiseclub Deutschland e. V.. In addition ARA Assistance must be available around the clock for the customers of their various clients in the insurance and travel sectors. Both sites in Ansbach and Bad Windsheim leverage a virtualisation infrastructure that allows independent operations. Bechtle renewed the hardware located at the Bad Windsheim site, quadrupling storage capacity and performance.

Project details.

Services

Server & Storage

Industry

Trade / Service

Manufacturer

IBM, Fujitsu

Company size

< 250 employees

Challenge.

Available around-the-clock offering telephone support in emergencies. ARA GmbH Auto und Reise Assistance (ARA Assistance) answers calls from customers making claims, implements initial measures and ensures seamless, results-oriented claims management. The highly trained and committed 60+ employees are a strong partner for holistic communications and service management and are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at the Ansbach and Bad Windsheim locations, providing comprehensive and advanced assistance. Every day, ARA Assistance generates a terabyte of data, which has to be available and usable all the time.

Several years ago, Bechtle had virtualised ARA Assistance and ARCD Auto- und Reiseclub Deutschland e. V.’s networks as far as possible. The mirrored data centre in Bad Windsheim was partitioned between the two sites so that they were connected, but also independent of each other. Self-contained yet linked, protected against data theft and downtimes and always highly-available and future-proof. Bechtle was tasked with replacing the existing hardware in just three months after the warranties had expired—during ongoing operations and without interruptions.

We replaced our existing hardware due to expiring guarantees with a new modern server solution from the same vendor. Thanks to Bechtle’s motivated team, we were able to find the perfect server and storage solution for our needs. Both work perfectly. The switch to the virtual infrastructure took place during ongoing operations without any interruptions. The new storage system delivers the biggest benefits and we’ve been able to considerably boost performance. Capacity has quadrupled, meaning we are sure not to suffer any bottlenecks in the coming years and we are able to fulfil our business continuity obligations.

Christian Jäger, Head of IT, ARA Assistance

Solution.

Bechtle took on the challenge and presented ARA Assistance with various vendors and solutions. ARA decided to stick to what they know, choosing Fujitsu Server (Primergy RX2540 M5) in combination with VMware virtualisation, IBM Brocade FC switches and IBM FlashSystem 5200. The extremely powerful environment is at home in a small rack space and is therefore perfect for both locations. Measuring in at only one rack unit, the IBM FlashSystem 5200 perfectly complements the FlashCore modules recommended by Bechtle to fulfil two of ARA Assistance’s requirements—performance and scalability.

The IBM HyperSwap technology’s user interface is easy and intuitive to use ensuring the fast and efficient management of the data centres. Virtualisation remains the remit of VMware, saving costs and allowing the decentralised use of the system.

Bechtle supported ARA GmbH Auto und Reise Assistance and its consultants during the implementation of the new server storage landscape, tackling migration and configuration together, too so that the entire restructuring and setup—from hardware ordering to deployment—was completed in just three months with Bechtle keeping a close eye on the costs.

Business benefits.

ARA Assistance’s new server and storage infrastructure considerably boosts data centre performance, but also storage, which has now quadrupled. ARA Assistance is now always there to help those in need—today and into the future.