Centralschweizerische Krafterwerke AG

Utility Company Expects to Improve Uptime, Competitive Edge with Failover Clustering

Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG (CKW), a Swiss utilities company, delivers information to an energy exchange each hour using a specialized application and e-mail messages. But frequent systems failures interrupted the flow of information and resulted in significant financial losses. In addition, market deregulation scheduled for October 2008 will increase competitive pressure on the company. To improve application availability and build a more responsive business, CKW is implementing Windows Server® 2008 failover clusters. The company can use improved application availability to strengthen customer service and respond faster to marketplace changes. With consistently available information, CKW also expects to make better trades on the energy exchange. Finally, with more stable systems, IT staff can focus on projects that move business forward.

Situation

By implementing a high-availability solution based on Windows Server 2008, we will be ahead of the competition. With the right information at the right time, we can respond faster.  Reto Meier Head of IT Infrastructure Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG

Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG (CKW) is a regional power utilities company that provides electricity to three cantons, or provinces, in central Switzerland. Based in Lucerne, CKW Group has more than 1,400 employees and approximately 140,000 customers.

CKW is also a member of the European Energy Exchange (EEX). Participants are required to send the EEX information—
including customer consumption records and payment information, and the company’s production capacity—each hour, within a designated 15-minute time frame. Even a short delay in sending data can result in high financial loss.

CKW and its subsidiaries are distributed across 10 locations. The company collected information from these locations with a specialized EEX application installed on a file server. The data was then delivered to the energy exchange through e-mail messages managed by Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003. However, the growing volume of information overwhelmed both systems, resulting in intermittent failures that disrupted the flow of data to the EEX. The company’s employees, who also relied on the messaging solution for e-mail, were impacted by downtime as well.

Preparing and sending information to the EEX was not the only challenge facing the company. CKW also wanted to prepare for the impending deregulation of the Swiss utilities market, scheduled to take effect October 1, 2008. To retain existing customers and add new ones, the company will have to meet the needs of a newly competitive marketplace. CKW sought to ensure that it will have the data it needs to deliver optimum customer service, and that customers will have the information they need to make informed choices.

“In the market today in Switzerland, the customer does not have a choice of utility companies for electricity,” says Reto Meier, Head of IT Infrastructure at Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG. “When the customer does have a choice, we have to be ready to make the best offer—and to make the best offer, we need the best information.”

CKW needed a high-availability solution that would be reliable, easier to maintain, and flexible enough to adapt quickly to changing business demands.

Solution

In early 2007, CKW decided to upgrade to the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. The company wanted to install its messaging solution and EEX application on Windows Server 2008 failover clusters. The company believed the solution  would deliver the high availability it needed for its messaging and energy-exchange applications. CKW was also interested in new configuration tools and improvements in the way the cluster works with storage.

CKW needs very high availability. With Windows Server 2008 and Exchange Server 2007 distributed over two datacenters, CKW is taking a major step in reaching that goal.  Richard Muri Chief Technology Officer PC-WARE Systems (Schweiz)

In addition to upgrading to Windows Server 2008, CKW decided to upgrade its messaging solution from Exchange Server 2003 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Edition. CKW wanted to take advantage of new features available in Exchange Server 2007 such as cluster continuous replication (CCR), which improves availability and reduces the chance of data loss by automatically copying data from the active server node to the passive server.

With help from PC-WARE Systems (Schweiz) AG, CKW began the detailed planning of its new solution in August 2007. PC-WARE has a long relationship with CKW and has helped the company successfully implement other solutions based on Microsoft software.

 In October 2007, PC-WARE and CKW installed the hardware infrastructure, which includes HP StorageWorks 8100 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA8100) high-performance RAID storage devices, and HP BL460c dual-core blade server computers with Intel Xeon processors.

Next, the team installed separate, two-node failover clusters for the EEX application and the Exchange Server 2007 messaging solution on the HP BL460c servers. The nodes are distributed between the two data centers and connect to an HP EVA8100 storage device at each location. By taking advantage of improved storage integration, CKW can make a new disk available or run tools to check and repair disks with minimal disruption to the cluster.

Windows Server 2008 also includes support for global unique identifier, or GUID Partition Table disks in cluster storage. The disks can have partitions larger than two terabytes in size, with up to 128 partitions available per disk. CKW plans to take advantage of the improved scalability by increasing the amount of data it collects from customers.

The EEX application runs on Windows Server 2008 Enterprise.  Each node includes a file server and a management server running on separate computers. CKW is using the Microsoft Management Console integrated in Windows Server 2008 to administer the file server cluster. Each file server includes the EEX application, backup software from EMC Corporation, and OfficeScan antivirus software from Trend Micro.

The Exchange Server 2007 nodes installed in each data center include a Mailbox server running on Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, and a Client Access server and a Hub Transport server running on Windows Server 2008 Standard.

CKW is using tools built into Windows Server 2008, such as the Server Manager Console and the Cluster Setup wizard, to install and configure its failover clusters. The team set up the file server cluster in approximately two weeks and the Exchange Server 2007 cluster in one week. The IT team will test its new high-availability solution with a group of pilot users in early January 2008 and plans to migrate all employees to the new system by February.

Benefits

Every bit of time we save is a success. We will be one of the first to implement Windows Server 2008, and it will give us the time we need to work on other important projects for our company.  Reto Meier Head of IT Infrastructure Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG

By installing its critical applications on Windows Server 2008 high-availability failover clusters, CKW will be ahead of the competition. The company can respond to the marketplace faster with more available data. It can also deliver better customer service and improve profits.  Systems will be more stable, and the IT team will have more time to build new technology assets for the company.

Stronger Competitive Advantage

CKW can be more competitive by deploying a high-availability solution based on Windows Server 2008. The utilities market in Switzerland will soon face major changes, and the company wants to be ready for them. Improved access to critical applications will help CKW strengthen customer service and thrive in a rapidly evolving business environment.

“By implementing a high-availability solution based on Windows Server 2008, we will be ahead of the competition,” says Meier. “With the right information at the right time, we can respond faster to the marketplace.”

Richard Muri, Chief Technology Office at PC-WARE Systems (Schweiz) AG, adds “CKW needs very high availability. With Windows Server 2008 and Exchange Server 2007 distributed over two datacenters, the company is taking a major step in reaching that goal.”

Improved Profits

Windows Server 2008 failover clusters will help the utilities company react faster to its customer base, and a more reliable flow of information will also help CKW improve its performance on the energy exchange. By taking advantage of improved uptime and scalability, CKW can significantly increase the quantity of data it collects from its customers, which the company will use to develop a better baseline for trading.

“We currently need to collect information about the demand for electricity from our customer base daily; with Windows Server 2008 we can collect it every 15 minutes,” says Meier.

Easier IT Management

CKW will save time with more stable systems and better management and configuration tools. Instead of trying to restore service and recover data, the IT team can work on projects to help prepare the company for the future.

“Every bit of time we save is a success,” says Meier. “We will be one of the first to implement Windows Server 2008, and it will give us the time we need to work on other important projects for our company.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/

For more information about PC-WARE Systems (Schweiz) AG products and services, call (41) 41 925 50 50 or visit the Web site at:
http://www.pc-ware.ch/

For more information about Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke  products and services, call (41) 41 249 51 11 or visit the Web site at:
http://www.ckw.ch/

Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008, with built-in Web and virtualization technologies, enables you to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure. New virtualization tools, Web resources, and security enhancements help you save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimized datacenter. Powerful new tools like IIS 7.0, Server Manager, and Windows® PowerShell, allow you to have more control over your servers and streamline Web, configuration, and management tasks. Advanced security and reliability enhancements like Network Access Protection and the Read-Only Domain Controller option for Active Directory Domain Services harden the operating system and help protect your server environment to ensure you have a solid foundation on which to build your business.

For more information, go to:
http:/www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published January 2008