Customer Profile
Headquartered in Monroe, North Carolina, the Colfax Pump Group is comprised of four leading pump manufacturers. Collectively, they offer a complete range of products that are the highest quality in the industry. Through the utilization of world-class business systems, Colfax Pump Group fulfills its mission as a premiere global supplier of rotary and centrifugal pumps.
The Colfax Group has grown through acquisition of several of the leading manufacturers of fluid handling products. Brand names like IMO Pump, Warren, Zenith, and Portland Valve are now combined under one entity and all are set up on the IFS business system.
Business Problem
Colfax originally deployed their IFS business system on equipment hosted by a third party at an off-site location. At the end of the hosting period, Colfax was notified that the service provider would no longer be hosting applications and that they would have to relocate their IFS business system (including Oracle, Citrix clients, and application servers). Colfax was left with the decision to find another third party hosting service or bring the system in-house.
After a detailed evaluation and cost comparison Colfax chose to move the entire system in-house and enlisted the help of eNSYNC Solutions to augment their technical staff. With the hosted servers scheduled to be shut down in only four weeks, time was quickly running out.
Solution Delivered
eNSYNC conducted an evaluation of the existing system, size of database, user count, etc and future growth expectations and recommended several new servers including new database, file and Citrix servers to replace the host system. While the new equipment was on order and awaiting delivery, eNSYNC developed procedures for copying the existing database, having the tapes shipped overnight and reinstalled on a test system at the Colfax data-center. After several successful tests, procedures were locked down and awaiting the cut over day.
- New IFS host system
- Oracle database server
- Two Citrix servers
- Print server
- Oracle standby database
- New back up procedures
With over 200 remotely-hosted users, Colfax was dependent on Citrix for all its IFS applications. After relocation, that figure was cut in half, enabling approximately 100 local users to access IFS directly, via the IFS Client. The remaining users were set up on two Citrix servers implemented with load balancing to ensure optimal performance and fail over protection. eNSYNC created several web pages to duplicate the look and feel of the “old” hosted system so that the Citrix users did not require any additional training or instructions on how to use the “new” system.
The replacement Oracle database server was augmented with additional hardware failover capability and additional Oracle software failover and recovery options. Together, Colfax and eNSYNC created a robust and high performance database that exceeded the users’ expectations.
In addition, an Oracle standby database was created on a separate server. Should the primary database fail, the standby database can be brought online with minimal loss of uptime. Shown below is a diagram of Colfax’s failover architecture.
Benefits Received
Colfax received immediate benefits from the move. Performance increased and response time improved dramatically. User satisfaction is good and on the rise and support questions and resolution have been streamlined. Substantial cost savings are being realized due to the elimination of recurring lease charges for the hosted system. Most importantly is the addition of a stand-by database which will insure Colfax will continue to have an operational system in the event of a disaster, something not provided by the hosted system.