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Posted: 8/4/2008
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Garanti Technology

Garanti Technology Upgrading Enterprise Integration Solution to SQL Server 2008

Turkey’s Garanti Technology, which is owned by the Doğuş Group, a large Turkish conglomerate, was asked to create an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for Doğuş Automotive Group, an importer and distributor of passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, spare parts and accessories for Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and other manufacturers. Garanti Technology created an ERP solution linking Doğuş automotive dealers, part suppliers, and other key partners using the Microsoft® Application Platform. The ERP solution, which includes a data warehouse, will soon be upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 database software to take advantage of new features that make it easier to manage data, better utilize resources, and enhance information security. The solution was developed using Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 (and earlier versions) and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Situation

Garanti Technology, which provides IT infrastructure, software development, system management, field support and other services, is a subsidiary of Garanti Bank which is owned by the Doğuş Group, a large Turkish conglomerate.

Garanti Technology has won respect for helping Garanti Bank distinguish itself as an innovative leader in technology, as evidenced by the bank in 2007 receiving the Euromoney Award for Excellence for the eighth time, and earning the title “Best Bank in Turkey.” So it wasn’t surprising that when Doğuş Automotive Group needed an enterprise integration solution it turned to Garanti Technology.

Doğuş Automotive Group, part of the Doğuş Group, is Turkey's second largest importer and distributor of foreign cars. The group is the exclusive importer and distributor of passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, spare parts and accessories for Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Seat, Skoda, Scania and Krone.

As Doğuş Automotive Group grew, it needed to create a better solution for integrating data exchange and communication between its distributor operations and its network of automotive dealers. Difficulties arose from the fact that the distributor ran its operations using an IBM AS/400 system, while dealers had a mixture of IT solutions running on different operating systems and applications. Some dealers were still using paper-based systems, further frustrating attempts at IT integration.

“Prior to Turkuaz the distributor was using IBM AS/400 systems, and the dealers had a spectrum of one-off solutions, ranging from spreadsheets to paper-based workflows,” says Umut Nazlica,

Our application is very complex, with more than 13,000 stored procedures and other considerations. The testing went very well, so we are eager to proceed with upgrading to SQL Server 2008. Umut Nazlica Manager of Open Systems Databases, Garanti Technology

After considering third-party enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, Doğuş Automotive Group decided the integration challenge was sufficiently complex to warrant a custom solution, so it turned to Garanti Technology.

Solution

Garanti Technology built Turkuaz using the Microsoft® Application Platform, and is preparing to upgrade the relational database to Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 Enterprise from SQL Server 2005 to take advantage of new features and enhancements to the database software. Turkuaz provides a Web-based, flexible and integrated IT solution which automates all the processes and transactions between the distributor, dealers and OEM. The solution runs on the Windows Server® 2003 for Itanium-Based Systems operating system.

The Turkuaz project lasted 3.5 years and involved 20 developers and 10 analysts. The ERP application includes more than 13,000 SQL Server stored procedures, more than 2,000 database tables, and more than 5,700 user interface screens.

Turkuaz has 3,613 users, with 937 users on the Doğuş Automotive Group distributor side, and 2,676 users on the dealer side. The system supports an average of 90 database transactions per second, with maximum loads reaching 4,000 transactions per second.

Solution Architecture
The Turkuaz application has a multi-tier design that includes:

• Presentation Tier. Users for the distributor and dealers access Turkuaz using a browser, avoiding the need for downloading client-side applications. The presentation tier uses Windows Server 2003 Internet Information Services Web server technology. 
• Staging Tier. Data from a heterogeneous collection of Doğuş Automotive Group systems is prepared for storage on the SQL Server relational database by using SQL Server Integration Services to perform extract, transform, and load processes. 
• Application Tier. The Turkuaz application was created using Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 and earlier versions. Garanti Technology developers also used the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, including the ADO.NET feature for database connectivity. The .NET Framework is an integral component of the Windows® operating system that provides a programming model and runtime for Web services, Web applications, and smart client applications. The application is hosted on three server computers integrated using a hardware load balancer. 
• Database Tier. The Turkuaz application is supported by data hosted on SQL Server. The solution includes a 450 gigabyte (GB) production database, and a 600 GB reporting database. The Table Partitioning feature of SQL Server is used to help automate data as it ages off the system.
• Reporting Tier. Recurring and ad hoc reporting is supported using SQL Server Reporting Services.

Preparing for SQL Server 2008
Garanti Technology plans an early upgrade to SQL Server 2008 for the Turkuaz application. Recently a Garanti Technology team brought Turkuaz to the SQL Server Test Lab at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

“We brought Turkuaz for testing,” says Nazlica. “Our application is very complex, with more than 13,000 stored procedures and other considerations. The testing went very well, so we are eager to proceed with upgrading to SQL Server 2008.”

Garanti Technology wants to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 to take advantage of new features, including:

• Resource Governor. SQL Server 2008 enables Garanti Technology to provide a consistent and predictable response to Turkuaz users with the new Resource Governor feature. Resource Governor enables defining resource limits and priorities for different workloads, and helps ensure resources can’t be unduly impacted by poorly constructed queries or other unusual workloads. Nazlica notes: “Resource Governor is one of the key features we want to take advantage of with SQL Server 2008 because we have different types of workloads and want to be able to define resource limits.” 
• Backup Compression. With SQL Server 2008 Backup Compression, the compression is performed in memory before the data is transferred to disk. Backups run significantly faster since less disk I/O is required. Backup compression reduces the storage required to keep backups online, reducing the overall cost of keeping disk-based backups.
• Data Compression. SQL Server 2008 helps organizations store more data on hard drives, reducing loads on storage systems. That same feature also reduces the number of disk reads that databases must perform—which can degrade performance—by incorporating more data into system memory. “The SQL Server 2008 Backup Compression and Data Compression features are very important to our efforts to reduce overall storage size,” says Nazlica. “We also see value in using Data Compression for log shipping.”
• FILESTREAM. FILESTREAM is a new feature of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 that integrates the SQL Server database engine with an NTFS file system by storing binary large object (BLOB) data as files on the file system. Nazlica likes the fact that Transact-SQL statements can insert, update, query, and back up FILESTREAM data within the database in the usual way.
• Change Data Capture. New for SQL Server 2008, Change Data Capture collects the complete content of changes, and places them in change tables. The feature maintains cross-table consistency and even works across schema changes. Nazlica says, “We are planning to use Change Data Capture especially for the big tables that are used with our reporting solution.”
• Intellisense and Multi-Server Script Execution. SQL Server 2008 extends Microsoft Intellisense® technology that developers value in Visual Studio. This will help developers work more efficiently when creating functions with Transact SQL. “Our database administrators will appreciate these new features because Intellisense helps avoid input errors,” Nazlica says, “and Multi-Server Script Execution is a time saver.
• Enhanced Data Auditing. SQL Server 2008 provides comprehensive data auditing to help Garanti Technology monitor all events at the server and database levels, and scale-out auditing across the enterprise.
• Transparent Data Encryption. SQL Server 2008 includes the transparent data encryption that enables Garanti Technology to encrypt data in an entire database without the need for application code changes. “Security is becoming more and more popular with our customers. Transparent data encryption is very important to protecting database information as well as the backups of this data.
• Policy-Based Management. New for SQL Server 2008, Policy-Based Management is a framework that Garanti Technology will use to set and enforce compliance with policies for system configuration. “Policy-Based Management is important for security purposes,” says Nazlica. “We have best practices to help ensure security, and Policy-Based Management will help ensure our best practices are uniformly applied.”
• Performance Data Collection. SQL Server 2008 provides Performance Studio, an integrated framework to collect, analyze, troubleshoot, and store SQL Server diagnostics information.

We believe we can create solutions at least twice as fast using Visual Studio and SQL Server than we could using DB2 and other development tools. Ozgur Ciragiloglu Software Developer, Garanti Technology

Benefits

Developing and deploying its Turkuaz application using the Microsoft Application Platform provided Garanti Technology with a rapid development environment. Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 will provide additional benefits including easier database management, better resource utilization, and enhanced security.

Easier Database Management
Garanti Technology will take advantage of several new features of SQL Server 2008 that will make for easier database management, including Policy-Based Management, Change Data Capture, Intellisense for SQL Server, and Multi-Server Script Execution.

“From a security standpoint we are very interested in SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management,” says Nazlica. “We have a set of best practices to ensure a secure environment, and we will use Policy-Based Management to ensure our best practices are applied across all of our servers.”

Policy-Based Management will also enable Garanti Technology to enforce other database management elements, such as specifying naming conventions. “Each stored procedure should begin with a standardized prefix,” says Nazlica. “The same goes for naming other functions and tables. By using Policy-Based Management from development and on through database administration, you gain an environment that is more logical and easier to manage.”

Garanti Technology will use the Change Data Capture feature of SQL Server 2008 for managing large tables used by reporting systems. “Especially for data warehouse projects, you need to move your production data to a reporting service and perform your tests on the reporting side,” says Nazlica. “With larger tables, fully replicating the data can take a large amount of time. Change Data Capture will enable us to capture changes so we can just update information that has changed. The time savings can be substantial. Rather than spending 2 hours copying a large table into the data warehouse, you can take just minutes or seconds to update changes.”

SQL Server 2008 includes Intellisense, which makes database management tasks easier by sensing what users want to do and intelligently filling in and providing options to achieve the desired results.

“Intellisense has been immensely popular on the development side with Visual Studio for years,” says Nazlica. “We are happy to have Intellisense extended to SQL Server 2008. We have very long table names and very long object names. With Intellisense we don’t have to write the full names with the underscores and such. Intellisense fills in a list of relevant options as you type, and greatly reduces the chance of errors.”

Despite the inherent complexity of what the application manages, our developers found the work easy to accomplish using Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. We’ve also found that application testing is considerably easier with Visual Studio 2008. Ozgur Ciragiloglu Software Developer, Garanti Technology

Better Resource Utilization
Garanti Technology will use the Resource Governor feature of SQL Server 2008 to prioritize workloads. “Especially during workday hours we want to ensure that our online analytical processing isn’t slowed by queries or batch processes,” Nazlica says. “We’ll use Resource Governor to protect the system from performance problems that might otherwise occur when different workloads are competing for the same resources.”

The company will use SQL Server 2008 support of data compression and backup compression to reduce storage needs. “We’re especially eager to use data compression on large data warehouse databases,” Nazlica says. “We’re planning on using backup compression with log shipping to reduce bandwidth usage to our disaster backup site.”

The Performance Data Collection feature of SQL Server 2008 will be used to collect, analyze, troubleshoot, and store SQL Server diagnostics information, helping Garanti gain optimum performance from its computing resources. Nazlica notes: “We’ll use Performance Data Collection on all of our servers to make sure any problems are identified early and resolved.”

Enhanced Security
With security becoming an ever more important issue, Garanti Technology will use the Transparent Data Encryption and Enhanced Auditing features of SQL Server 2008 to help protect data. “We’ll use SQL Server 2008 to encrypt data, including backup data,” Nazlica says. “We are seeing increasing interest in security from our customers, and they like the idea of encrypting data, so even if an unauthorized person gained access to a file, they wouldn’t be able to read the contents.”

The company has seen increasing demand for security audits, as organizations it does business with require verification that data is protected. “We’re seeing more audit requests in the industry, and they often want us to demonstrate the ability to document who has accessed what data,” says Nazlica. “This was something that was extremely hard to do without third-party tools prior to SQL Server 2008. With Enhanced Auditing, we will be able to provide granular information including when and by whom each data change was made.”

Rapid Development Environment
Garanti Technology benefited from the rapid development environment provided by Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

“We work with Visual Studio and the .NET Framework because it provides a highly efficient and easy to work with development environment,” says Ozgur Ciragiloglu, Software Developer at Garanti Technology. “Our Turkuaz application is an ERP solution that handles complex interactions between OEMs, distributors, authorized dealers, and a number of other firms. Despite the inherent complexity of what the application manages, our developers found the work easy to accomplish using Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. We’ve also found that application testing is considerably easier with Visual Studio 2008.”

The Garanti Technology development team also benefitted from how easily SQL Server integrates with Visual Studio. “Many of our developers also have experience working with the DB2 database, and they find it is much easier to develop applications using SQL Server,” says Ciragiloglu. “We believe we can create solutions at least twice as fast using Visual Studio and SQL Server than we could using DB2 and other development tools.”

Summary
Building its Turkuaz application on the Microsoft Application Platform, including its rapid upgrade to SQL Server 2008, has enabled Garanti Technology to create a custom ERP solution for Doğuş Automotive Group that will benefit from SQL Server 2008 enhancements that will make data and resources easier to manage, and provide added security features.

Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008
Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008 provide a secure and trusted foundation for creating and running your most demanding applications. Combined, the products offer advanced security technology, developer support for the latest platforms, improved management and Web tools, flexible virtualization technology to optimize your infrastructure, and access to relevant information throughout your organization.

For more information about Windows Server 2008, go to: www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

For more information about SQL Server 2008, go to: www.microsoft.com/sql/2008/default.mspx

For more information about Visual Studio 2008, go to: www.microsoft.com/vstudio.

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: www.microsoft.com

For more information about Garanti Technology products and services, visit the Web site at: www.garantitechnology.com

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

Document published August 2008