Due to growth and acquisitions, Nowy Styl needed to improve the performance, security and scalability of its hybrid computing infrastructure and prepare the system for future business growth.

By deploying Oracle Database on LinuxONE servers running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (link resides outside of ibm.com) and adding IBM FlashSystem storage, Nowy Styl increased system speed and security to ensure Oracle Database performance and continued business growth.

From its inception in 1992 as a maker of office chairs in Poland, Nowy Styl has grown to become Europe’s third-largest manufacturer of furniture solutions for offices and public spaces. This growth has been underpinned by the company’s commitment to designing inspiring office interiors and operating highly efficient and modern production facilities.

In addition to organic growth, Nowy Styl expanded through strategic acquisitions in key markets. Starting in 2011, Nowy Styl took over a series of well-known German office furniture companies. Now, Germany represents the company’s largest single market. To become a major participant in the dynamic Turkish market, Nowy Styl took a 50% ownership position with a Turkish production and distribution company. Nowy Styl also made acquisitions in the important Swiss market.

Nowy Styl provides furniture for new office buildings, conference centers, cinemas, stadiums, music, sports and multi-functional facilities. Nowy Styl references include multinational corporations such as DS Smith, Honeywell, Deloitte and ABB, cultural institutions such as the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice and the Munich Opera, as well as stadiums in Poland and France where European Football Championships were held in 2012 and 2016. In six out of the seven stadiums now under construction for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, fans will sit in Nowy Styl seats.

With operations in 16 countries and sales to over 70 nations, Nowy Styl placed an ever-increasing workload on its legacy IT infrastructure, which was, like with so many other rapidly growing companies, built incrementally. The company’s IT footprint evolved to include multiple distributed servers, and system management became more challenging as business demand grew for computing services.

“As we grew, we had a lot of problems with performance,” says Piotr Ziemiański, Deputy IT Director of Nowy Styl. “We had more data to analyze, the system took longer to process reports, and in some cases, people didn’t have all the information they needed to make the right decisions.”

Long data processing times impacted production, one of the company’s most vital business operations. “Our automated manufacturing lines had to wait for data before they could start production,” says Ziemiański. “These delays also impacted our logistics operations, which took more time to prepare products for shipment. We had a lot of problems with this.”

The company’s legacy data storage system also had performance issues. “Our Oracle database system was always waiting for data to come from our storage systems,” says Ziemiański. “There were also security issues because our old storage system couldn’t encrypt the data.”

When Nowy Styl’s management asked the IT department to improve the performance of the system, the search started for a solution that could address the performance issues and prepare the system for future growth and upgrades. “We conducted a thorough analysis of the challenges and made a list of available solutions on the market that could help us,” says Ziemiański. “And because we’ve worked a lot of times with IBM, we asked them to support us.”

By deploying the LinuxONE server and IBM FlashSystem storage, Nowy Styl saw significant performance improvements, with business-critical processing speeds increasing by an average of 450%.

Examples of performance improvements include:

• A shop material planning report that used to take 187 minutes to process is now completed in 60 minutes—a 68% shorter time.
• A key process replication report that used to take 62 minutes to prepare is now completed in 16 minutes—a 74% shorter time.
• A key production scheduling planning report that used to require 111 minutes to prepare is now available in 24 minutes—a 78% shorter time.

With IBM FlashSystem storage deployed in support of Oracle Database, Nowy Styl is also much more confident about data security. “This storage solution gives us stability, fast access to the data and more security because of full data encryption,” says Ziemiański. “Now we know that our data is safe, and the platform will have quick access to the data.”

A further benefit of the consolidation is that the physical footprint of Nowy Styl’s IT infrastructure is smaller than the previous system. Efficiencies gained by the LinuxONE deployment means that the footprint won’t need to substantially grow as workloads increase.

The LinuxONE solution provides the potential for cost savings when it comes to software licensing fees. The system is designed to optimize the current software licensing structure. As business grows, Nowy Styl won’t need to license more software, even as workloads increase. The system also provides flexibility to deploy existing licenses for new projects.

As Nowy Styl considers moving computing services to a private cloud, the LinuxONE system will enable the deployment of more software containers and microservices. “Our internal developers are creating modern solutions that give us an advantage in the market,” says Ziemiański. “We believe that microservices improve the development process and give us more flexibility and security.”

Today, Nowy Styl benefits from optimized Oracle database performance and more layers of system security. The overall results have exceeded initial expectations. But even greater benefits from LinuxONE consolidation will be realized as the system scales up to handle increased workloads. “After this migration, our computing platform will not limit us in the future,” says Ziemiański, “and we will be able to meet the challenges management will give us.”

Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Krosno, Poland, Nowy Styl (link resides outside of ibm.com) delivers furniture solutions to over 100 countries. The privately-owned company operates 31 showrooms located in European cities, with many other dealer showrooms around the world. Furniture production facilities are located in Poland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. With 28 years of experience and 2019 revenue equal to EUR 461 million, Nowy Styl has received many awards for product design and manufacturing technology and has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Employers in Poland.

Based in Warsaw, Poland, IBM Business Partner UpWare (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a comprehensive IT solutions provider and specializes in IT infrastructure projects for IBM. UpWare also provides services related to data centers, archiving and backup systems, migration and optimization of base environments, safety analytics, IT resource monitoring, performance optimization and open source solutions. UpWare has extensive experience with Oracle database migrations, helping clients navigate through complex migration processes in the shortest possible time while maintaining appropriate levels of security.