Bimmerle – Simple secure network management

Bimmerle KG – Simple secure network management with Cisco Meraki.

Over the last five decades, the Black Forest distillery, BIMMERLE, has become known throughout Germany and Europe for its high-quality spirits. To do so, the Bimmerle KG Private Distillery combines expertise with high-tech and traditional distillation methods. For more performance and security standards in the network at the newly constructed production site in Sasbach including simple cloud-based management, Bechtle designed a Cisco Meraki network. The new switches can be quickly swapped and boost network performance ensuring BIMMERLE is well-equipped for the future.

Project details.

Services

Networking Solutions
Cloud

Industry

Manufacturing

Manufacturer

Cisco

Company size

< 250 employees

Challenge.

Located in the heart of the sun-kissed Black Forest fruit orchards, the BIMMERLE KG Private Distillery can track the native fruits from buds to harvesting, from cultivation to distillation. BIMMERLE has several brands that are well-known to its fans—from the top German fruit spirit brand, Lörch, and Needle Gin launched in 2016 to WOOD STORK spiced rum refined with Black Forest fir and spruce honey. With the experience of traditional distillation methods gained over 50 years combined with market-oriented innovations, the local medium-sized family business has become the leader in fruit spirits on the European market.

At the new, highly-modern production facility in Sasach, BIMMERLE is setting new standards in technology, sustainability and environmental protection. When it came time for the in-house data centre to be upgraded with new switches, the Black Forest company decided they wanted simpler management and a link to the cloud. The future-proof network had to be fast and secure so that customers and fans alike would be able to make purchases in the new online shop at any time without having to wait too long for their favourite tipples.

With the new network consisting of Cisco Meraki switches, Bechtle has given us a future-proof solution that is both secure and easy to manage from the cloud. Thanks to its extensive experience with the manufacturer, Bechtle knew exactly what we needed and were able to fulfil all our expectations. We were even able to make use of Cisco’s innovative cashback programme thanks to Bechtle, which proved itself to be an experienced partner with extensive technical expertise!

Moritz Allgeier, IT, Bimmerle KG

Solution.

For many years, BIMMERLE had already been successfully using Cisco hardware in parts of its network, but in the future, everything was to be Cisco Meraki. Sustainability was at the fore during the upgrade as Bechtle was able to help BIMMERLE make use of Cisco’s Takeback and Reuse Programme, which sees Cisco take back all old devices—no matter their manufacturer—as part-payment and recycles them. In this way, BIMMERLE were able to save on the costs for Cisco Meraki hardware. The devices returned to Cisco were recycled to ensure responsible disposal.

With Bechtle, the exchange went quickly and smoothly. Bechtle created a suitably sized concept for a network in an in-house data centre that consisted entirely of Cisco Meraki hardware and is easy to manage in the cloud. Bechtle also scaled both Cisco Meraki MS425 core switches and several Cisco Meraki MS125’s were installed as access switches. Together with the appropriate Meraki LIC licences, the result was cloud-managed switching in a high-performance network. BIMMERLE can physically wire the switches in a snap and stack them using cross-stack link aggregation. And if a hardware component should fail, Cisco promptly sends out a new device that can be automatically configured via Plug and Play. This gives BIMMERLE a reliable connection to the network core and the always-available bandwidth of the multi-Gigabit Ethernet. Network configuration is child’s play via a cloud platform. Using a dashboard, BIMMERLE can manage all ports simultaneously if required, regardless of their physical location and the device used to access them. This zero-touch provisioning in the central cloud management software makes managing the network both simple and secure.

Business benefits.

With the homogeneous network of Cisco Meraki components newly installed by Bechtle, BIMMERLE is now able to easily and securely manage its IT infrastructure in the cloud from anywhere. The environment’s performance and the ability to quickly swap the switches makes the whole network fit for the future while new components can be quickly integrated through the cloud platform. Security functionalities such as setting up virtual local area networks (VLANs) with numerous intelligent options are also already integrated. And with Cisco’s cashback offer, BIMMERLE saved costs and was able to update its network sustainably and in an environmentally-friendly manner.