IT infrastructures: Tunisia Merchant Navy and Ports Office, new centralized IT infrastructure via Bull since September 2012: Stakes and Opportunities (Guestpost)

The project aims to provide Tunisia Merchant Navy and Ports Office, with a centralized platform that is robust and scalable enough to support the growth strategy for the country's whole chain of port activities.

"Key targets for modernization and better service quality

OMMP's role is to manage and monitor operations in Tunisia's commercial seaports, to ensure the best possible conditions in terms of turnaround times, quality and security. To achieve this, the organization has embarked on a vast modernization project. Its aim is to ensure continuity of service and high levels of performance in the centralized management of information systems, not just the business systems that manage maritime traffic, but also central systems such as financial and human resources management applications. OMMP's priorities also include appropriate use of new technologies and simplification of procedures.

Against this backdrop, the Ports Authority decided to implement a new, homogeneous state-of-the-art architecture, to hold all the data from its seven commercial ports at a single site in La Goulette, and relying on simpler and more secure operational procedures.

Virtualization: at the heart of the IT transformation project

Bull brought together all the necessary expertise and skills at a local level, to build and implement this new virtualized architecture, including all its components, from servers to storage and networks.

With consolidation rates of up to 400 Virtual Machines (VMs) per server, the infrastructure is designed to keep pace with OMMP's requirements for centralization, simplification and scalability. It is based around new-generation Bull Escala Power 7-based Unix data servers - that are perfectly matched to the mission-critical nature of OMMP's demands - complemented by NovaScale Blade application servers, guaranteeing 24x7 service continuity and capable of supporting an unlimited number of virtual servers. For effective security and resource sharing, Bull has also implemented a Storage Area Network (SAN) architecture based on EMC and Brocade technologies.

Finally, skills transfer and targeted training provided by Bull have helped OMMP to fully understand the new technical platform, so it can be administered by its own teams".