Oracle Customer Success — Berlin Hyp AG

Berlin Hyp Boosts Server Performance and Reduces Energy Consumption

Oracle Solaris 11.3 and the new SPARC T7-2 servers have taken our IT to the next level. Our infrastructure now performs far better, we are saving energy, and have cut our configuration and administrative workload. We are very satisfied with the results of this project and are preparing for the introduction of Oracle Database 12c.

— Thomas Rosenburg, Head of IT Operations, Berlin Hyp AG

Berlin Hyp Uses Oracle to Boost Performance Tenfold While Reducing Energy Consumption

Berlin Hyp specialises in large-volume real estate finance for professional investors and housing societies, for whom the Bank develops individual financing solutions. As an enterprise forming a Group together with the German savings banks, it also makes an extensive spectrum of products and services available to these institutions. Berlin Hyp’s clear focus, almost 150 years of experience and its close proximity to the Savings Banks Finance Group characterize the Bank as a leading German real estate and mortgage bank.

To strive in the competitive real estate financing market, Berlin Hyp continuously optimizes its customer services, workflows, and the information technology it uses. The bank’s server landscape that had been in use to date was no longer able to cope with increased requirements in terms of storage capacity and processing speed. An infrastructure upgrade was therefore necessary to make the server environment fit for the future.

Challenges

Cope with increasing business demands and provide the basis for the planned introduction of Oracle Database 12c by upgrading to high performance, energy efficient servers
Increase employee productivity and further improve Berlin Hyp’s customer service by boosting the performance of around 60 applications, from core banking software to data warehouse

Reduce server infrastructure complexity so that it could be operated and administered by a very small team, and cut the cost of operating the infrastructure
Contribute to operating the bank as a sustainable company by achieving a significant reduction in energy consumption at its two datacenters

Replaced 10 legacy systems with 4 SPARC T7-2 servers on Oracle Solaris 11.3, reducing energy requirements for processing power and cooling by at least 50% and laying the foundation to upgrade the existing Oracle databases to Oracle Database 12c
Achieved a tenfold performance increase for business-critical applications such as core banking software and data warehouse, and empowered staff to work more efficiently

Increased IT security by installing each individual application in separate Oracle Solaris Zones, so that administrative actions such as starting or stopping processes only ever affect one zone and undesirable influences on other applications are ruled out
Reduced time to create Oracle Solaris Zones by 10x—from previously one day to as fast as one hour—adding substantially to the bank’s IT security by shielding applications running on the same server from undesirable influences
Consolidated three hardware and software generations into one, empowering a three-people IT team to operate and maintain the solution thanks to a significantly reduced administration workload
Obtained certification in accordance with EMAS, the ‘Eco-Management and Audit Scheme’ developed by the European Union, by demonstrating energy savings and underlining the company’s commitment to climate protection and the preservation of an intact environment

Berlin Hyp has been using Oracle hardware and software very successfully for many years. When making our choices, we use many different criteria such as performance, availability, virtualization, and support. Overall Oracle offers state-of-the-art technology with relatively long lifecycles at a fair price. That is why Oracle was also the clear favorite in switching to a new server generation.

— Thomas Rosenburg, Head of IT Operations, Berlin Hyp AG

Execution

To ensure that there was no disruption to the operation of business critical applications, the new server environment was initially installed in parallel to the legacy systems. Around 60 applications were then migrated, step by step, whereby each application was installed in a separate Oracle Solaris Zone. Thanks to thorough preparation and efficient support from Oracle Partner etomer, the installation and migration of the server infrastructure and all applications was concluded within seven months, well within the original schedule of 12 months. In addition, only 80% of the allocated project budget was used.

About Berlin Hyp AG

Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

Employees

585

Berlin Hyp AG

Berlin Hyp specializes in large-volume real estate financing for professional investors and housing companies for whom it develops individual financing solutions. As an independent company within the German Sparkassen Group, it also provides these institutions with a comprehensive spectrum of products and services. Its clear focus, almost 150 years of experience, and its proximity to the Sparkassen finance group distinguish Berlin Hyp as a leading German real estate and mortgage bank.

Partners

“As the contractual partner of the Sparkassen and Berlin Hyp, etomer GmbH provided exemplary support for our project. We greatly appreciate the dedication, know-how, and reliable working relationship we have with etomer’s experts. We were provided with outstanding support throughout the duration of the project and see this as one of the major reasons for its success,” Rosenburg said.