Russian Railways collaborates with IBM to optimise IT infrastructure

Telecomworldwire, May 22, 2009

TELECOMWORLDWIRE-22 May 2009-Russian Railways collaborates with IBM to optimise IT infrastructure(C)1994-2009 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com

Railway operator Russian Railways is working with information technology company IBM (NYSE:IBM) to help optimise its IT infrastructure and is using new technologies to improve its freight and passenger management systems.

Russian Railways manages a large network of passenger and freight trains relying on a powerful IT infrastructure. To gain better control of the complex rail system, IBM is working with the railway operator to migrate its freight and passenger management, as well as financial management, applications to three new consolidated, disaster-proof data centres based on IBM mainframe technology. Before the latest project, the company's human resource management system was implemented on the new infrastructure.

The project, scheduled for completion in 2010, is expected to enable Russian Railways to achieve a system reliability and fault-tolerance level of 99.9% while reducing operating costs and capital required for future development.

According to the company, IBM specialists developed an IT strategy that involved consolidation of the 17 regional data centres and the main data centre to only three data processing facilities in Moscow, St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg, Russia. Replication between the facilities will enable data and process recovery in case of a regional disaster or failure at one of the centres, in which case the workload will be distributed between the other two operational centres.

Each data centre complex consists of two or more IBM System z10 servers running IBM DB2 and over 15 high-end and midrange IBM Power6 servers. Earlier in 2009, IBM also signed a contract with Russian Railways to provide maintenance services for the data centres.

In addition, the railway operator is using IBM WebSphere software for core internal and external web portals. The internal portal is used for information management and document sharing amongst railway employees, while the external portal improves the passenger experience by allowing tickets to be booked on-line.

No financial details were disclosed.

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