Lenovo : PEPCO Poland Supports Domestic Growth and International Expansion with Lenovo Server Platform

Expanding rapidly - both in the domestic market and abroad - discount retail chain PEPCO Poland wanted to ensure that its systems and processes could stand up to the demands of increasingly large and complex operations. Today, the company runs mission-critical business applications on a flexible and powerful Lenovo server platform with Intel® technologies, giving the business the headroom it needs to grow productively and profitably.
'Having a single server platform enables us to rapidly react to emerging business needs and to quickly troubleshoot any issues before they result in downtime.'

-S?awomir Staniek, IT Architect, PEPCO Poland

Solution components
Hardware

Lenovo System x3950 X6 with Intel® Xeon® E7 family of processors

Lenovo System x3850 X6 with Intel Xeon E7 family of processors

Lenovo System x3650 with Intel Xeon E5 family of processors

Lenovo System x3550 with Intel Xeon E5 family of processors

Software

Microsoft Windows Server

Microsoft Hyper-V

'Four-processor Lenovo servers are the most scalable platform available right now. With such a flexible infrastructure, IT can easily react as business demands continue to grow.'

-S?awomir Staniek, IT Architect, PEPCO Poland

Headquartered in Pozna?, Poland, discount retailer PEPCO operates over 500 stores across the country and employs more than 5,000 people. PEPCO offers shoppers a wide variety of clothing and household goods at low prices, and is Poland's most popular children's clothes retailer.

Having grown rapidly since its foundation in 2004, PEPCO continues to expand - most recently into neighboring countries, such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Today, PEPCO operates 800 stores in five countries across Eastern Europe.

S?awomir Staniek, IT Architect at PEPCO Poland, comments: 'PEPCO has gone from operating a dozen or so outlets in Poland to being a leading international retail chain - and continues to grow at a ferocious pace.'

Supporting a dynamic business

To support day-to-day operations, PEPCO relies on integrated Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Active Directory, and Microsoft System Center software solutions.

PEPCO Poland's IT department is responsible for developing and managing the company's entire IT environment. Only the secondary data center, along with some networking and communications systems, are outsourced. As PEPCO continues to grow, the IT department must take on responsibility for more and more hardware and software assets to fulfil business needs.

'It is hard to overestimate the significance of IT systems to our business,' says S?awomir Staniek. 'As we grew, we recognized that we need to invest in a highly reliable, efficient and secure hardware environment in order to keep mission-critical applications running around the clock. Any infrastructure delay, downtime or failure is unacceptable, as it would directly impact business.'

Robust and scalable platform

In search of a powerful, scalable server platform, PEPCO Poland selected Lenovo technology. The company worked with VOL Systems, a trusted Lenovo partner, to procure and implement the servers.

'We first implemented System x servers in 2009,' recalls S?awomir Staniek. 'Back then, we only needed fairly basic models. Today, with business booming, we use advanced Lenovo solutions - predominately four-processor System x3850 X6 and two-processor System x3650 machines.

Using Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization technology, PEPCO Poland operates two clusters - one with five nodes and one with three - which together run more than 200 virtual machines. The company runs email, catalogue services, Microsoft System Center, some in-house build systems, test and development environments on the bigger cluster. The smaller cluster is located at the secondary data center and maintains WWW services and Microsoft SQL Server database systems.

S?awomir Staniekcomments: 'We use the most powerful four-processor System x3850 servers in various configurations, including two of the latest X6 models, to support our virtualization platforms, and ERP and business intelligence systems.'

Rock-solid foundation

Chosen years ago, the Lenovo server platform continues to meet PEPCO Poland's business and technical needs in terms of scalability and efficiency.

Miko?aj Kujawa, Technical Director at VOL Solutions, explains: 'Four-processor Lenovo servers are the most scalable platform available right now. For example, it is possible to quickly upgrade a four-processor x3850 X6 Lenovo server to an eight-processor x3950 X6 machine. With such a flexible infrastructure, IT can easily respond to growing business demands, and rapidly scale up systems to cope with increased demand when, for example, PEPCO opens a new location or launches into a new market. This kind of agility is key to helping the company grow the business in a fast, productive way.

'At the same time, the servers offer high levels of efficiency, enabling PEPCO Poland to meet the high volume of memory required to support operations. This contributes to the Lenovo solution's attractive capacity-to-price ratio.'

With the homogenous Lenovo hardware environment, PEPCO Poland can apply one common method of configuration, management, update and service maintenance. S?awomir Staniekremarks: 'Having a single server platform enables us to rapidly react to emerging business needs and to quickly troubleshoot any issues before they result in downtime.'

He concludes: 'Lenovo servers provide us with a strong platform for driving better business performance. The combination of strong performance, easy scalability and high availability allow us to maximize operational efficiency while minimizing system downtime, helping PEPCO Poland to stay ahead in a fast-moving market.'

For more information

To learn more about Lenovo Data Center Systems solutions, contact your Lenovo Sales Representative or Lenovo Business Partner, or visit: lenovo.com/systems
For more information about PEPCO Poland, visit: www.pepco.pl

© 2016 Lenovo. All rights reserved.

Availability: Offers, prices, specifications and availability may change without notice. Lenovo is not responsible for photographic or typographical errors. Warranty: For a copy of applicable warranties, write to: Lenovo Warranty Information, 1009 Think Place, Morrisville, NC, 27560. Lenovo makes no representation or warranty regarding third-party products or services. Trademarks: Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, and System x are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon and Xeon Inside are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Visit http://www.lenovo.com/lenovo/us/en/safecomp.html periodically for the latest information on safe and effective computing.