Estuate helps a major wireless telecom curb data growth with IBM Optim CHALLENGE A major wireless telecom wanted to curb data growth and reduce hardware and storage costs across its enterprise. After years of accumulating transaction records, the telecom‟s databases had become difficult and costly to maintain and operate.
SOLUTION Estuate and IBM worked together to implement IBM Optim Solutions and enhance the telecom‟s data governance function.
RESULTS Using enterprise data management best practices, the telecom expects to: Save potentially tens of millions of dollars per year. Minimize the need to purchase new server and storage hardware. Eliminate at least one petabyte of storage over the next few years. Maintain a consistent set of processes for data management. Reduce the cost of database administration and IT operations. Speed time-to-market for new products by streamlining testing.
HIGH CALL VOLUMES CAUSE DATA GROWTH AND HARDWARE SPRAWL
EXPERIENCED CONSULTANTS DEMONSTRATE THE VALUE OF EDM The telecom embarked on a detailed process of evaluation.
A major wireless telecommunications provider
After considering an enterprise data integration solution
recently assessed its transaction processing
from Informatica, the telecom began to investigate IBM
volumes and realized it needed to change the
Optim Integrated Data Management Solutions—an
way it manages data. Thanks to the telecom‟s
integrated, modular environment to design, develop,
high daily call volumes, the databases for its
deploy, operate, optimize, and govern enterprise data
customer management, billing, and service
throughout its lifecycle.
systems had grown to staggering sizes. But due to the ever-falling cost of new hardware,
IBM Lab Services prepared a proof of concept to
the telecom had simply purchased new
demonstrate the benefits of a data archiving factory. The
hardware and let transaction records and other
telecom engaged Estuate to provide valuable
data accumulate.
implementation assistance and apply its methodology for implementing a data management factory.
Over time, the telecom‟s developers continued to proliferate copies of production databases
“Our telecom client decided to work with Estuate because
for non-production purposes such as testing,
of Estuate‟s depth and breadth of experience with IBM
development, and training, resulting in
Optim,” says Jodie DeMuth, Optim Sales Leader, IBM. “We
hundreds of copies of massive databases.
recommend Estuate with confidence because we trust their
When the telecom‟s overall storage
EDM methodology, the depth and breadth of their Optim
requirements reached multiple petabytes, the
implementation resources and experience, and their
company decided to create and implement an
„extreme service‟ culture.”
enterprise data management (EDM) strategy that would drive cost savings around archiving
During the proof of concept, IBM used InfoSphere
data and retiring out-of-use applications.
Discovery to show that one of the telecom‟s key business applications, which were to be retired, touched far more
“Although the costs of storage hardware and
databases than anyone had previously realized. This
CPU have continued to fall with Moore‟s Law
insight convinced the telecom that IBM and Estuate were
over the past decade, the cost of managing
the right solution partners to power the new data factory.
that hardware can be crippling to an IT department,” explains Marc Hebert, chief
“With IBM InfoSphere Discovery, we proved that it‟s not
operating officer, Estuate. “Rather than simply
always obvious how much data any given application
continuing to let its disk farms grow, as so
accesses and generates over the course of its lifecycle,”
many companies have done, this telecom took
Hebert remarks. “You have to perform very careful analysis.
a strategic look at managing its data and minimizing its storage requirements.”
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Having a tool that provides a view of those data relationships can accelerate any EDM project.”
www.estuate.com - t: 408.400.0680
HANDS-ON TRAINING HELPS COMPANY BECOME SELF-SUFFICIENT IN EDM Because the telecom faced tight budget constraints
So far, Estuate has analyzed 10 of the telecom‟s
and lacked the core competence it needed in data
applications, archiving and retiring four of them.
archiving, Estuate spearheaded the implementation
The target for the second year is to address up to 12 more applications.
of IBM Optim to support the company‟s EDM initiative. The project is progressing in phases.
Once the initial archiving is complete for each application, Estuate hands over archiving responsibilities to the telecom‟s IT operations group. This will enable the telecom to be largely self-sufficient in EDM after the project has been completed. “Since we‟re dealing with fairly complex tools, there‟s no substitute for actually doing the work,” says Hebert. “That‟s why we‟re delivering all the training in the form of project execution, with a mentor guiding staff members in hands-on work. We‟ll also remain available to provide classroom training and documentation to reinforce that knowledge after the fact.”
DATA ARCHIVING AND APPLICATION RETIREMENT PAVE THE W AY FOR ONGOING SAVINGS With IBM Optim and Estuate, the telecom projects it will save hundreds of terabytes (TB) of storage over the years to come. Not only has the company established a consistent set of processes to implement a data management factory, but it has transitioned toward a governance model with a competency center around data management.
“Within the first year of the project, we’ve achieved some significant breakthroughs in retiring and archiving applications. That sets the stage for much more to come. Our client is using the principles of EDM to reverse the data proliferation that caused this outgrowth of hardware.” Marc Hebert COO, Estuate
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Working closely with the telecom‟s vice president of IT, Estuate continues to transfer knowledge to the IT staff. Already, a major organizational transformation is taking place within the telecom.
ABOUT ESTUATE Headquartered in Silicon Valley,
“There has been a significant cultural change associated
Estuate is a global information
with this project,” says Hebert. “We‟ve helped our client get
technology services company that
away from the mindset of throwing more hardware at
specializes in helping companies
problems—not just because IT budgets are getting too tight
establish and improve enterprise
for that sort of thing, but because EDM can deliver real, ongoing cost savings.”
data management strategies and
Over the next three to five years, the telecom‟s savings will
Estuate is IBM‟s go-to partner for the
come from freeing up about one petabyte of disk storage
implementation of IBM® Optim
space. Associated with this reduction, the company will
Solutions for custom applications,
achieve labor savings in database administration and IT
Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft,
operations. The potential savings run into the tens of millions
Siebel and JD Edwards. We have
of dollars annually. The telecom will also be able to enhance
expertise on distributed platforms and
its time-to-market for new products by provisioning test
IBM mainframes. Estuate was one of
systems more quickly and deploying systems sooner.
the early partners involved in the
best practices.
Oracle-to-DB2 migration program. We work closely with IBM account teams
“When you cut down on the overall data burden across a major organization like this, you help all of IT to run more efficiently. That results in bottom-line cost savings. Our corporate sponsor within the telecom is excited and pleased by the progress so far—and so are we.” Marc Hebert COO, Estuate
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www.estuate.com - t: 408.400.0680
to meet our mutual clients' Enterprise Data Management needs.
For more information, please contact: Marc Hebert, Estuate’s COO marc@estuate.com T: 510-468-7132