Cotrijal, the largest cooperative in Rio Grande do Sul, adopted VMware's hyperconvergence solution to increase the processing capacity of its information in real time and improve the availability of systems in order to ensure the best operation of the operation. The project was carried out in just three days and not only improved processing and availability, but also the speed of response of the systems, impacting, including the end customer experience.
At the time, the cooperative's machinery park was obsolete and needed to undergo a migration that would require a high investment. Therefore, it decided to improve its IT infrastructure and sought a hyperconvergence solution.
After analyzing different scenarios with support from Gruppen, Cotrijal decided to adopt vSAN, VMware's hyperconvergence solution, which, in addition to delivering numerous benefits to IT and the operation, would leave the company free to change the machinery in the future, if necessary, without any impact. , as it is a completely hardware-independent technology. In addition, vSAN has a feature that allows the creation of distributed sites, the Stretched Cluster, meeting a great need for the cooperative.
“vSAN is fully granular and flexible, and allows companies to expand the aspect that is affecting them, be it memory, storage or processing power, at any time. In this way, technology allows for an easier and more agile response to the demands of the business area”, says Daniel Chassot Mentz, solutions architect at Gruppen.
As Cotrijal was already using other VMware solutions, the data migration was done quickly and without stopping the operation. In just three days, the entire cooperative was running on vSAN without any impact on the business.
To get an idea of the benefits of technology for Cotrijal, one of the main areas of the cooperative is the purchase and sale of grains. During the harvest, hundreds of trucks from the cooperative arrive every day and need to be weighed, unloaded and the goods stored in the correct silos. This process is very critical, requiring real-time operation and quick response. In the last harvest, with the new technology, there was no interruption and times improved significantly.
This speed is also essential to guarantee an agile and non-stop service due to the unavailability of the systems in Cotrijal's supermarkets and stores, which, with the solution, also started to deliver a better experience to the customers of its commercial establishments.
“The solution that supports our applications directly impacts the experience we offer our customers. With VSAN, access to information from systems that run in the VMware environment, such as tax, market and store, was about six times faster, allowing for an agile and seamless service", says Luiz Felipe Lopes, manager of Cotrijal's IT area.
All this was only possible due to the excellent results of the hyperconvergence solution also in the IT area. Previously, there was a replication structure and all applications stored in the primary site were also in the secondary data center, which was triggered only when the main one went down. In addition, as the second site did not have the same capacity to service the company's operations, there was always a risk of the system falling and the operation being stopped for a few hours.
With the solution, this weakness was eliminated. Today the two data centers are fully integrated and running at the same time, which made it possible to distribute applications in both, with greater storage capacity. And, in case there is an accident with the first one, the operation continues running almost without interruption.
“vSAN gave us the performance we needed. Previously, it took almost two hours to activate the second site. Today, if one of the servers goes down, the others take over almost in real time. This not only guarantees a stable operation, but also relieves the IT area, which can act in a more strategic way”, comments Alberto Cé, IT infrastructure coordinator.
And the benefits of the solution don't stop there. The technology also contributed to a reduction in licensing costs, enabling other investments aimed at improving the operation as a whole.
At the time, the cooperative's machinery park was obsolete and needed to undergo a migration that would require a high investment. Therefore, it decided to improve its IT infrastructure and sought a hyperconvergence solution.
After analyzing different scenarios with support from Gruppen, Cotrijal decided to adopt vSAN, VMware's hyperconvergence solution, which, in addition to delivering numerous benefits to IT and the operation, would leave the company free to change the machinery in the future, if necessary, without any impact. , as it is a completely hardware-independent technology. In addition, vSAN has a feature that allows the creation of distributed sites, the Stretched Cluster, meeting a great need for the cooperative.
“vSAN is fully granular and flexible, and allows companies to expand the aspect that is affecting them, be it memory, storage or processing power, at any time. In this way, technology allows for an easier and more agile response to the demands of the business area”, says Daniel Chassot Mentz, solutions architect at Gruppen.
As Cotrijal was already using other VMware solutions, the data migration was done quickly and without stopping the operation. In just three days, the entire cooperative was running on vSAN without any impact on the business.
To get an idea of the benefits of technology for Cotrijal, one of the main areas of the cooperative is the purchase and sale of grains. During the harvest, hundreds of trucks from the cooperative arrive every day and need to be weighed, unloaded and the goods stored in the correct silos. This process is very critical, requiring real-time operation and quick response. In the last harvest, with the new technology, there was no interruption and times improved significantly.
This speed is also essential to guarantee an agile and non-stop service due to the unavailability of the systems in Cotrijal's supermarkets and stores, which, with the solution, also started to deliver a better experience to the customers of its commercial establishments.
“The solution that supports our applications directly impacts the experience we offer our customers. With VSAN, access to information from systems that run in the VMware environment, such as tax, market and store, was about six times faster, allowing for an agile and seamless service", says Luiz Felipe Lopes, manager of Cotrijal's IT area.
All this was only possible due to the excellent results of the hyperconvergence solution also in the IT area. Previously, there was a replication structure and all applications stored in the primary site were also in the secondary data center, which was triggered only when the main one went down. In addition, as the second site did not have the same capacity to service the company's operations, there was always a risk of the system falling and the operation being stopped for a few hours.
With the solution, this weakness was eliminated. Today the two data centers are fully integrated and running at the same time, which made it possible to distribute applications in both, with greater storage capacity. And, in case there is an accident with the first one, the operation continues running almost without interruption.
“vSAN gave us the performance we needed. Previously, it took almost two hours to activate the second site. Today, if one of the servers goes down, the others take over almost in real time. This not only guarantees a stable operation, but also relieves the IT area, which can act in a more strategic way”, comments Alberto Cé, IT infrastructure coordinator.
And the benefits of the solution don't stop there. The technology also contributed to a reduction in licensing costs, enabling other investments aimed at improving the operation as a whole.
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