The Itanium Solutions Blog

Two recent posts on the SAP Community Network blog offer some good insight on designing and running various computing environments on Itanium. Zoran Popovic is a Senior Systems Engineer at Hemofarm, an international pharmaceutical group based in Serbia. The content is geared toward those who own SAP on Itanium and Windows, and for those interested in SAP, Itanium and virtualization.

In “SAP, Linux, Virtualization and - Itanium …” Zoran talks about how his firm’s IT infrastructure, originally based on 10 Integrity servers with HP-UX, then Windows, has grown and evolved over the years. Today, five years later, their system is twice as large with a 1TB database. Zoran states:

Hemofarm’s SAP landscape is quite diverse and currently consists of: ERP systems, BI systems, CEN system, NW04, Solution Manager, EWA, monitoring, SAP routers, SAP Web Dispatchers, network printing servers, and different sandbox and other systems.
The main argument for Itanium system application is usage within OLTP systems and databases. In order to address low server utilization rates, Zoran suggests that consolidated OS environments be isolated and that is usually done through some form of virtualization.

In a follow up post “SAP, Linux, Virtualization and - Itanium … continued” he illustrates some new findings and results from the system and speaks to those interested in SAP with virtualization about moving from Windows or Unix to Linux.

Some approximate tests were run and improvised benchmarks with virtualized and bare metal SAP systems are posted for ERP, ERM, and ERC. The goal was to make a comparison with similar bare metal systems and different platforms — not making exact results comparable with some official tests.

About Itanium in the data center, Zoran States:

Zoran is interested in making further inquiries and welcomes any suggestions and recommendations both about benchmarking and this environment in general.

Read Zoran’s posts in full here:

SAP, Linux, Virtualization and - Itanium …
SAP, Linux, Virtualization and - Itanium … continued.

Fujitsu, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), and Intel have all recently announced the deployment of the TSE’s next-generation trading system called “arrowhead.” An increase in online trading volumes and institutional investor algorithm-based trading was the primary driver for the new system that now ranks alongside the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange as the most advanced in the world.

The arrowhead system was designed for for speed, enabling millisecond-level market access that allows increased liquidity and new styles of trading; bedrock reliability built on triply-redundant servers; scalability, with double the capacity needed for peak volumes; and transparency, expanding quote feeds and real-time access to data. Underlying the system is the innovative combination of Itanium-based PRIMEQUEST servers from Fujitsu, the Linux operating system, and a combination of middleware with advanced technological features and functional enhancements.

After eighteen months of preparation and testing, the TSE switched off their mainframe and went live with arrowhead — demonstrating a 600 times increase in performance.

Read the news release from Fujitsu.

Read more about the Fujitsu PRIMEQUEST 500A Itanium-based servers.

Read the news release from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

We welcome a new blog to the Itanium Solutions blogroll “Legacy Transformation - the cost of doing nothing.” This blog from HP sees regular contributions from experts in mainframe modernization who share tips and tools on working with legacy code, energy savings, lowering TCO, and more.

A recent post “Ropes, Strings, and Threads” describes the continuing development of the “Visual Intelligence Explorer” tool and how it allows developers to extract clusters of code from a complex graph of an entire application. This is helpful to drill down into code and determine which cloned code is the most important.

I’m pleased to use this forum to make the first announcement of the Alliance’s fourth annual Itanium Innovation Awards Program. For those not familiar with it, the Alliance uses this program to recognize organizations and individuals who have deployed outstanding solutions based on the Itanium platform. Read about past winners here.

Submissions are now being accepted in the four award categories:

Winners will be honored at an exclusive event held in conjunction with the September Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. The gathering is an excellent opportunity to network with executives from the Alliance, Alliance Sponsors, and those who submit award entries. Winners will receive a professional publicity package that includes logos, web banners, and a case study. We will also applaud the winner of the Humanitarian Impact category who will receive a $25,000 cash prize to support their on-going efforts.

Please take the time to complete the short entry form or encourage your customers and/or partners to participate. Help us spread the word about the Innovation Award to the entire Itanium community. Entries are due by April 12, 2010. For more information including the entry form, please go to the Alliance’s Innovation Awards website.

Use this unique opportunity to demonstrate the outstanding value of your Itanium-based solutions and then join the fun at the award ceremony. I look forward to seeing you there!

Click here to watch the webcast