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INEOS O&P USA cuts operational SAP costs by 20 percent in the cloud
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
Applicable Industries
- Chemicals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Process Control & Optimization
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
INEOS O&P USA, a major producer of high-density polyethylene and polypropylene, wanted to simplify and improve the reliability of its SAP landscape to enhance key business processes. The company's SAP and other applications were running on a large number of dedicated servers, which over time, grew into a complex landscape that was relatively costly to operate. The company was looking for a flexible, agile infrastructure that could adapt quickly to new demands. The traditional architectures based on dedicated servers for each application tend to sprawl, and gradually become more and more difficult to manage, which was less than ideal for INEOS O&P USA.
About The Customer
INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA (INEOS O&P USA) is part of the global INEOS group and is North America’s third largest producer of high-density polyethylene and polypropylene, and its second largest merchant marketer of ethylene. It produces 7.5 billion pounds of olefins and polymers per annum from five sites in North America, employs nearly 1,000 people, and generates revenues of USD 5 billion per year. The company’s main products – ethylene, propylene, butadiene, mixed butenes, crude benzene, polyethylene and polypropylene – are manufactured from hydrocarbons derived from oil and gas. Hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) techniques have been developed that enable previously inaccessible hydrocarbons to be extracted from shale oil deposits – providing an abundance of raw materials at a much lower cost.
The Solution
INEOS O&P USA decided to build a fully flexible IT landscape by adopting IBM Cloud Managed Services for SAP Applications, gaining the ability to develop new functionality rapidly and cost-effectively. A team from IBM Global Technology Services – Cloud Managed Services helped to implement the new SmartCloud architecture, which is based on IBM Power 770 servers. The advantages of a cloud-based landscape for SAP are significant, particularly for companies like INEOS O&P USA, where there is a major focus on development and innovation. When additional SAP functionality needs to be developed or moved into production, a new virtual server can be created using IBM Cloud Managed Services for SAP Applications, and the memory and CPU requirements can be adjusted to meet the specific requirements.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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