A workload-optimized solution of IBM hardware and software has been installed at the hydro plant, improving the plant's business processes by 50 percent and dramatically reducing the number of interrupted operations, IBM said in a statement.
Krasnoyarsk Hydropower Plant is the primary generator of electricity in the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia and one of the country's most cost-efficient. The plant’s IT infrastructure was however in need of updating. Until recently, the IT environment was managed and monitored through a variety of loosely-connected legacy systems that were riddled with process inefficiencies. As a result, system alerts that pointed to IT trouble were delayed, which slowed IT recoveries and often led to lengthy outages.
As a result, IBM was approached to provide smarter computing solutions.
"Uninterrupted access to information and fault tolerance of IT systems are crucial for energy companies," said I. Yudina, CIO of the Krasnoyarsk Hydropower Plant. "We had to ensure realtime monitoring of the operating systems on which our ERP runs - AIX and Linux. IBM Tivoli software monitors the status of all IT infrastructure components in realtime, thus helping us address any potential problem before an outage occurs."
The new IT architecture comprises IBM BladeCenter blade servers, the high performance and scalable IBM System Storage DS4700 Express, IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library Express Model, and IBM Tivoli Monitoring software that manages the health of the infrastructure, including servers, operating systems and databases.
As a result, the power plant is able to optimize systems across every layer to manage diverse workloads and ensure uninterrupted operation of its IT systems in realtime, says IBM. Key data management processes now run 50% faster than before, while system reliability has increased significantly to help prevent future electricity outages. Also, in the event of a malfunction, an employee is now alerted via text message within seconds.
"IBM performs smart energy projects all over the world, and we are happy to leverage our international experience in this strategic sector of the Russian economy," said Alexey Kaminsky, industrial account manager at IBM Russia and CIS. "The improved performance of management processes and uninterrupted IT operation achieved at the plant showcases our centralized approach to the IT management in an energy company."
IBM worked with local business partner Computel to develop the system.
