High Availability for the Digital Future with Stratus Edge Computing Platform
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Based in Switzerland, the powder processing solutions provider has a long history of manufacturing machines that are used by pharmaceutical and food and beverage companies to blend, mix and convey fine powdery products. Its Asia-Pacific operations serve customers from the region, leveraging the powder processing technology that the company is renowned for.
Food and beverage companies rely on the company’s machines to produce coffee powder, for example. Also available are machines for pharmaceutical customers, which help them meet stringent requirements in cleaning and processing their products.
High Availability for the Digital Future
To ensure that its operations run unhindered, the powder processing technology company knew it had to seek a replacement for its existing solution, which could not fulfil its business continuity goals.
It had relied only on a cold backup, running on a regular workstation, to keep the operations at the company going should a disruption occur. This, it knew, was not enough.
The backup had to be carried out manually and synchronization was not always error-proof. More importantly, the snapshots may not always work for a full or fast recovery should things in the production system go wrong.
The company knew that high availability was a must for the mission-critical equipment used to manufacture the powder processing machines that its customers trust. Unplanned downtime poses the risk of lost revenue. It also requires a disproportionate amount of resources to get things up and running again.
Finding a Solution That Was Easy to Deploy
The powder processing provider at first sought to set up a warm backup system. However, this did not solve the challenge of business continuity. The company still required a way to quickly recover the data should an unplanned disruption occur.
Its technology partner, Winsys Technology, proposed a high-availability system built on the Stratus ztC Edge server.By placing it at an important part of its operations — at the edge of the network controlling and monitoring the manufacturing process — the powder processing provider was able to gain an improved understanding of the real-time situation.
With this, the staff could remotely monitor the machines without actually stepping onto the factory floor. It could be more proactive in managing any emergent issue with a manufacturing machine.
Building a Foundation for the Future With the Stratus ztC Edge Server
Key to the decision was the ruggedized Stratus design that makes the ztC Edge server built for industrial use. The high availability it offers is critical, because all data written to disk is mirrored automatically.
The Intel-based ztC Edge platform also delivered high performance. A single unit enabled the powder processing provider to monitor and control its manufacturing machines at its premises, running multiple workloads concurrently. This is because the ztC Edge server comes with built-in virtualization to allow customers to consolidate multiple applications onto a single platform. This means reducing cost and boosting agility.
Fast Deployment and Ease of Maintenance
At the same time, the ztC Edge server comes with the ease of installation and maintenance that Stratus is renowned for. With rugged hot-swappable nodes and automated data protection and local site recovery, it helps reduce the complexity of a company’s IT infrastructure.
For a systems integrator such as Winsys, which has experience integrating IT and operational technology (OT), the ztC Edge server demonstrated its ease of use quickly.
It could easily prepare a virtual machine (VM) remotely and have it duplicated on another ztC Edge machine, which saves it a lot of time in terms of the basic installation. For each machine installed, it could save a day of manpower.
This was a key benefit for the powder processing provider, as the company did not have a full-time IT team to take care of the Edge Computing unit. In Addition, with the ztC Edge server’s ease of use, the company could focus less on the infrastructure and more on its applications. This modernization of the company’s equipment also provides peace of mind for their critical infrastructure, allowing them to concentrate on improving their solutions and focusing more on their customers in the long term.
Conclusion
The Stratus ztC Edge server has helped the powder processing provider to reduce unplanned downtime, thus improving the reliability and productivity of its production line. This has been critical in enabling
it to forge ahead and build trust with its own customers.
The ease of use of the ztC Edge server also means that there is no need to hire a dedicated IT team to be on-station all the time. By being easy to maintain and operate, the system has enabled the company to focus on its core business.
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Source from Stratus Technologies
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About HoST
HoST, founded back in 1990, operates in the industrial automation market across Singapore and parts of South East Asia. HoST’s vision is to be a company that delivers customer-centric values to address evolving business needs. HoST has been mainly recognised as the sole authorised distributor of Allen-Bradley Company in Singapore. Over the years, HoST has not only established strong ties with its various business partners but have continued to build new and successful business relationships to provide its customers with the best-in-class solutions that are available in this competitive market. HoST ever-expanding portfolio of solutions makes up the three core pillars of its business, specifically in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), Industrial Network and Security, as well as Carbon Footprint Reduction, which reflect HoST’s commitment to innovation and sustainable growth.
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