MAIN Private Cloud for hosting IFS Cloud for furniture manufacturer – Mikomax case study

In this case study you will find out:

• How we created a production environment on servers with Ampere® Altra® processors – the first one in Poland,
• Why our client decided to outsource the infrastructure to MAIN Data Center
• How HPE servers with Ampere Altra processors perform as a platform for IFS Cloud.

At the time of publishing (October 2024), this case study describes the first implementation of the IFS Cloud production environment in Poland on HPE servers with Ampere Altra processors.

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About the client

Mikomax was founded in 1991 in Lodz, Poland by Janusz and Anna Mikolajczyk. The company started as a designer, manufacturer, and seller of office furniture. Today, Mikomax creates offices tailored to the needs, requirements, and organizational culture of its clients. The company not only designs furniture, but also advises its clients and trains them in using its products.

Mikomax cooperates with companies from all over the world. Since 2022, it has been part of Haworth, the world’s third-largest manufacturer and seller of interior design products – including furniture.

Mikomax focuses on sustainable development and innovation in business processes, as well as the latest information technologies.

By choosing MAIN Private Cloud based on ARM servers for IFS Cloud software Mikomax has become an innovator in the use of IT solutions.

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IFS Cloud

IFS Cloud is an efficient business software suite that stands out for its comprehensive approach to managing key processes in enterprises. It combines advanced functionalities of systems supporting enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM), customer relationship management (CRM), asset management (EAM), and service management (FSM).

Thanks to its integrated approach, IFS Cloud offers companies full insight into their operations, facilitating strategic decision-making and process optimization. The advantage of this platform is its flexibility and efficiency, which allow it to adapt to the unique needs of an enterprise regardless of the industry.

The software is primarily dedicated to sectors such as aerospace and defense, energy, construction, industry, and services. In each of these industries, IFS Cloud provides advanced tools that support not only current operations but also development and innovation, ensuring companies a competitive edge.

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Choosing the solution – from on-premise infrastructure to outsourcing

In 2022, the client decided to purchase IFS Cloud software. While looking for an optimal technological solution for this platform, the company rented servers from EIP S.A. – a hardware distribution company belonging to the same capital group as MAIN.

During the tests of the on-premise infrastructure, Grzegorz Laziuk, Sales Director at EIP, suggested that Mikomax consider an alternative option – outsourcing to MAIN.

Creating or expanding an in-house server room is not the only solution for companies using platforms like IFS Cloud.

They can also check the capabilities of an external Data Center - that's why I suggested Mikomax could visit MAIN.

At the time, MAIN was the first provider in Poland that had already completed testing of the new HPE ProLiant RL300 Gen11 servers and was adding them to its catalogue.

Grzegorz Laziuk Sales Director, EIP S.A., Vice President, MAIN

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HPE ProLiant RL300 Gen11, built on the ARM64-based Ampere Altra processor, is a server designed for cloud-native applications. With a very high number of CPU cores (up to 128) and low power consumption for such a solution (up to 250W), users can reduce their electricity bills.

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A visit to the data center on Giełdowa Street in Warsaw and discussions with MAIN engineers resulted in the decision to test the capabilities of HPE servers with Ampere Altra processors. The Proof of Concept (PoC) phase lasted more than six months.

A new IT environment was prepared specifically for the PoC, and its quality was verified by the client’s IT team – programmers, consultants, and architects, as well as an external company working with Mikomax.

PoC was a success – the environment ran smoothly and, most importantly, provided high performance. The company decided to use MAIN Private Cloud on servers with ARM-based CPUs.

This is the first launch of a production environment on servers with Ampere Altra CPUs and the first such implementation of the IFS Cloud in Poland.

Why MAIN?

My job as CTO is to ensure the business continuity and performance of the company infrastructure. By transferring the responsibility for it to a trusted, third-party provider, I can focus on developing systems and applications rather than maintaining the resources on which they are hosted.

We chose MAIN for a number of reasons such as the technology and security solutions they offer, their professionalism, and the support and advice that they have offered us from the very beginning.

Arkadiusz Szafranski IT Director, Mikomax

Hosting for IFS Cloud – client’s needs

In search of the best solution for IFS Cloud, Mikomax focused on three key aspects: environmental security, stability, and high performance. During testing, the client analyzed various options, including both in-house hosting and outsourcing. After thorough analysis and comparison of the available options, Mikomax concluded that outsourcing would be the optimal solution.

Migrating resources to a professional data center guarantees infrastructure reliability, high availability, and IT environment performance. With the support of a team of specialists available 24/7, everything is maintained at the highest level, ensuring time savings and resource security, thus providing “peace of mind.”

After extensive testing of servers with ARM64 architecture processors, the client decided to base part of their environment on them, combined with virtualization and OracleLinux for the database. An additional requirement from the client was integration with the existing Active Directory environment located on-site, which was also successfully implemented.

Implemented solution – MAIN Private Cloud – HPE servers with Ampere Altra CPUs

For the duration of the tests, we set up a dedicated environment in MAIN Data Center. It was based on an HPE server with Ampere Altra CPUs and local NVMe drives. After preparing the virtual machines, we conducted performance tests according to the client’s guidelines.

The PoC was tailored to the client’s requirements, and they appreciated its high performance.

That is why, after testing, Mikomax decided on a production environment, and MAIN engineers designed it to meet high availability standards.

Wojciech Lewandowski Head of Cloud Engineering & Operations, MAIN

The production environment was created using two HPE ProLiant RL300 Gen11 servers with Ampere Altra processors, featuring ARM architecture, configured into a cluster for high availability (HA) and an HPE Alletra Storage MP array (with NVMe drives) dedicated to these servers.

ARM technology varies from the processors commonly used in data centers, so we paid special attention to the compatibility of the client's operating systems and applications with the CPU technology.

We proposed a hybrid environment - virtual servers for Oracle databases placed on dedicated ARM architecture servers, while the rest of the environment runs on a shared environment on VMware vCloud in MAIN - these are both application servers and ones for management and reporting.

Wojciech Lewandowski Head of Cloud Engineering & Operations, MAIN

MAIN and Mikomax engineering teams have been working closely together throughout the implementation and maintenance phases. The customer’s environment is also continuously developed.

In addition, we have deployed load balancing using HAProxy software, and at the time of writing (August 2024), MAIN has implemented an IDM solution – an application access management system with multi-factor authentication (MFA). As a result, access to the client’s applications has been secured through an additional authentication step.

Client testimonial

The solution offered by MAIN is not only pioneering on a national scale but also perfectly suited to our needs. The high performance of the servers and arrays translates into the speed of Oracle databases and the acceleration of data processing on the IFS Cloud platform.

Thanks to close cooperation with the MAIN team, I can always count on their support - in maintaining the environment, solving problems, and developing our IT.

We haven't found another vendor like MAIN that provides high-quality hardware, software, and security, and shows such a pro-client approach. From the very beginning, our cooperation has been excellent - I can recommend MAIN to anyone.

Arkadiusz Szafranski IT Director, Mikomax

Partner's comment

Hewlett Packard Enterprise focuses on developing collaboration with service providers who possess extensive competencies and offer services through their own data centers. MAIN is one of our key partners in Poland, as confirmed by their status as an HPE Partner Ready Service Provider.

Together with MAIN, we conducted tests of various scenarios using HPE ProLiant RL300 Gen11 servers, including hosting IFS Cloud software, which demonstrated that this technology can be very effective.

It is the optimization of performance, energy efficiency, and the additional services of competency teams and the partner's technical support that allow us to deliver the best service on the market, based on an infrastructure-as-a-service model.

Marek Kwiatkowski Partner Business Manager, HPE