manroland Goss web systems GmbH

At the beginning of the project, it was not clear exactly how many and which documents needed to be transferred. This was because the existing archive had been in use for several years. It contained documents of all shapes and sizes from different sources. Developing a migration strategy was thus the main challenge. It was eventually determined that more than two million documents would be involved in the migration. In addition, some 455 different SAP objects associated with document types were identified. The archive had a size of about two terabytes.

A new streamlined archive and archiving hardware developed by FAST LTA

In early 2019, the SAP systems were moved to a new hosting provider.

This provided the impetus for in-house archiving. The choice fell on the archiving software CLARC CONTENT SERVER FOR SAP. This high-performance and audit-proof archiving solution was easily integrated into the existing SAP environment. The Silent Brick System from FAST LTA with hardware write once was chosen as the physical storage medium.

read many (WORM) security was implemented. In addition, a connection to the content server was established. IT partner CTO Balzuweit had already integrated some of these systems at its customers and recommended this German manufacturer because of its many years of positive experience and the easy integration of its solution with complex archive systems. In order to provide optimal control, the CLARC CONTENT SERVER was hosted on a virtual server connected to the Silent Brick System. This created a basic installation and allowed the SAP systems to be directly connected to the archive solution. At the same time, scan zones were set up for document digitization, as manroland Goss web systems had scanners from several generations, each of which had to be connected to the archive system.

A largely self-contained migration and greatly simplified management

CTO Balzuweit provided a tool that allowed manroland Goss’ IT team to perform the migration on its own. Configuration and initial testing were performed together with the IT partner. This was necessary in view of the need for possible fine-tuning of the system. A special guide provided a summary of the most important aspects of the migration.

By performing the migration in-house, manroland Goss saved consulting costs and was in control of the timing. The Silent Brick System was implemented in cooperation with FAST LTA. Again, the installation process was simple. The system was put into production by manroland Goss and FAST LTA together. “Thanks to extensive preparations, we were able to set up our internal archive system quickly. This provides us with a customized archive solution. The operation of the Silent Brick System is much easier compared to the previous system,” says a satisfied Peter Brechtel. With the Silent Bricks with hardware WORM security, all invoices and packing slips can be archived audit-proof. It can be accessed at any time via the archiving software. Data volumes with a gross storage capacity of 12 terabytes are available for archiving. Of this, 7 TB is currently being utilized. Archive data that is to be retained for up to ten years has already been migrated to this new system. Thanks to its modular concept, the Silent Brick System is virtually infinitely expandable.

Challenges

The upcoming updates and increasing costs of an externally hosted archive system resulted in the decision to move the system to the internal data center. The archiving concept was also re-examined. At the beginning of 2019, the SAP systems were transferred to an environment at a new external hosting party. This laid the foundation for an internal archiving solution. The choice fell on CLARC CONTENT SERVER FOR SAP, which used physical storage media from FAST LTA’s Silent Brick System with hardware WORM protection.

For disaster recovery purposes, manroland Goss web systems GmbH plans to replicate the contents of the Silent Bricks to another data center in another fire section. The replication will then take place automatically from the active system. In addition, individual Silent Bricks will be stored offline at a third location to further increase security. A resounding success and 90% lower costs “The insourcing of our archive system has contributed to a significant reduction in costs and management overhead,” says Peter Brechtel. Thanks to automatic status updates from the Silent Brick System, he and his colleagues always have instant knowledge of the state and load of the archive. Due to rapid data growth, an expansion of the system is already planned. The project was a resounding success: manroland Goss web systems was able to reduce hardware and software costs by 90 percent and gained significant flexibility.

Solution

• Silent Brick Drive
• Silent Brick WORM

Industry

• Industry/machinery

Applications

• CLARC CONTENT SERVER FOR SAP

IT partner

• CTO Balzuweit GmbH