BorsodChem Migrates to a Greener, Cloud-based Workspace, Ensuring Data Security
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The story of BorsodChem, one of the leading plastic raw material and inorganic chemical producers in Europe, spans generations. That's been made possible, to a large extent, by farsighted, routine Information Technology (IT) infrastructure updates, which have helped the company find the right network chemistry to implement ambitious plans, striving for excellence through innovation. Celebrating its 72nd anniversary, it's this focus on renewal and innovation that has helped the company go from strength to strength in the European marketplace, improving product quality through the introduction of cutting-edge technologies.
Based in Kazincbarcika, Northern Hungary, BorsodChem owns and operates diverse facilities, from manufacturing plants and Research and Development (R&D) hubs to data centers and, of course, a headquarters building. With more than 1000 end-users all using individually assigned, traditional Personal Computers (PCs), spread across a sprawling 8 square kilometer site, the company was facing significant data risks given that sensitive data was stored locally. This setup proved a headache for the IT department, too: when any hardware issue arose, IT staff had to physically travel to the affected end-users to diagnose and then fix faults. In addition, while the risk of data leaks at the local level was high, the IT utilization rate remained unsatisfactorily low, given that individual users couldn't easily share data with each other.
The company's legacy PC hardware was also beginning to show its age, with reliability issues only growing over time, placing an ever greater burden on the maintenance team. It was in this context that BorsodChem's IT team felt that it was time to act and implement improvements, which would also support the company's digital transformation efforts: straightaway, an IT infrastructure modernization push was kicked off. The overall goal was to improve data security, upgrade capacity, and boost efficiency, all while saving on Operating Expenditure (OPEX).
BorsodChem first began working with Huawei back in 2016, so the company naturally turned to its trusted partner to help implement Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
The solution that was chosen — FusionAccess Desktop — is based on Huawei's FusionCube hardware infrastructure and its FusionSphere cloud Operating System (OS). This allows users to access remote desktops through Thin Clients (TCs) and other connected terminals. FusionAccess Desktop offers system-level reliability for management nodes and user connections and, thanks to rapid fault location, diagnosis, and rectification capabilities — using wizard-based and tool-enabled Operations and Maintenance (O&M) — the user experience is always seamless and ultra-convenient.
FusionCube and the FusionSphere virtualization platform converge compute and storage resources in a simplified, efficient, and reliable virtualized environment. This simplifies O&M through unified resource management and one-click capacity expansion, health checks, and log collection.
The FusionAccess Desktop Solution is already bringing a range of benefits to BorsodChem's operations. By the end of 2021, a VDI solution accommodating more than 700 desktop users had been implemented, with built-in scalability supporting even more. "In an era of deep digital transformation, we needed to find a scalable, future-proofed solution. Huawei's unique VDI has met all expectations, guaranteeing we are ready for the challenges we must take on in order to develop and grow our business. In particular, Huawei VDI helped us to cope with the situation we were facing due to COVID-19, when many users worked from home offices and remotely accessed their virtual computers, all while sensitive user data was stored centrally in the data center, increasing data security. In addition, rolling out and operating virtual computers proved to be an easy process, freeing up significant IT resources," said Erno Pinter, Deputy Director of IT at BorsodChem.
The massive amounts of data that the company stores and handles on a daily basis is now safely protected in secure data centers. In addition, BorsodChem's IT services are more efficient than ever before, with the IT team now able to provide centralized services and troubleshooting, conducted remotely. Streamlined daily processes also free up time for IT staff, boosting maintenance efficiency. In short, VDI is helping ensure that data is safeguarded while business continuity is assured.
VDI, of course, also has a longer lifespan than traditional desktop PCs, saving on future hardware costs. And the new Huawei solution has additional benefits, from lower total power consumption to reduced maintenance costs and a lower fault rate, helping to bring OPEX down — significantly.
With BorsodChem devoting sizeable resources to planning green strategies, migrating to VDI is a part of that journey, driving down the company's carbon footprint, at the same time helping to implement more effective management of IT resources, ultimately supporting ongoing innovation and growth.