General Logistics Systems (GLS) is one of Europe’s leading parcel delivery service providers. The company operates more than 50 distribution centers and has access to over 1,000 depots and agencies in 25 countries. The company employs 18,000 people in Europe and the U.S.
GLS IT-Services GmbH is the business unit responsible for managing the IT applications and infrastructure that support the group’s logistics services in Europe.
At-a-Glance
For GLS to deliver 600 million parcels to over 270,000 customers across Europe every year, it needs the IT systems underpinning its operations to run reliably all day, every day — 24/7 year-round. To ensure high availability and performance of critical business applications, core IT services and over 20,000 handheld label barcode scanners, GLS IT-Services GmbH chose to standardize on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), giving the company access to powerful automation tools and best-in-class support services.
The Challenge
Every day, more than 30,000 GLS vehicles hit Europe’s road to get parcels into customers’ hands. The company is primarily focused on the B2B market and delivers approximately 600 million parcels every year.
To meet increasing customer expectations, GLS needs to innovate with more sophisticated tracking apps and more efficient and environmentally friendly technology, such as electronic vehicles. To achieve this, the company relies on its IT solutions, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices like hand scanners, to seamlessly record incoming and outgoing parcels, generate and print shipping labels, and optimize delivery routes.
Johannes Kolb, head of license management, group IT infrastructure at GLS IT-Services GmbH, begins: “We’re renowned for our reliable services, with most domestic deliveries completed within 24 hours. International shipments typically reach their destination in one to four days, so we’re working to tight deadlines. System availability is therefore crucial. Our job in IT is to make sure that all the relevant information about the parcels is available around the clock to guarantee a speedy delivery.”
“SUSE Linux Enterprise Server delivers excellent performance, reliability and availability, which is just what we need to keep operations running smoothly. With our SUSE Support Subscription, we benefit from continuous improvements to features and stability.”
SUSE Solution
For many years, GLS IT-Services GmbH has run its mission-critical business applications, as well as its core file, print, user management and networking services, on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).
Patrick Weppler, manager server services, group IT infrastructure at GLS IT-Services GmbH, comments: “Our central mail system runs exclusively on SLES, ensuring the security and stability of internal communications. More than 7,000 users depend on the mail system running reliably.”
The configuration of more than 20,000 hand scanners is also managed with SLES.
Weppler states: “SLES is a remarkably stable and reliable operating system. The thoroughly tested and well-supported solution meets all our requirements. Because we are running business-critical systems on SUSE Linux, we value the peace of mind that comes with having a dedicated support engineer. We’ve been really impressed with the quality of support on offer, and our questions are always answered promptly.”
Kolb confirms, “We’ve been running SLES for over 12 years and haven’t experienced any major issues in that time — but it’s good to know that SUSE is there for us if we ever do have any problems.”
By choosing SLES, GLS IT-Services GmbH benefits from high quality support services, along with enhanced security patches and ease of maintenance.
Kolb notes: “Today, we have about 2,500 servers running SLES, most of them virtualized with VMware technology. We use SUSE’s built-in YaST and AutoYaST system management tools to manage the environment and install additional software as needed. We use a standard VMware image to provision new virtual servers quickly — all of which reduces the maintenance burden significantly.”
He adds, “The SUSE team also supports our software management efforts, providing professional, expert support with rapid response times.”
The Results
SLES helps GLS IT-Services GmbH to keep everything moving in a fast-paced logistics environment, by enabling the company to efficiently dispatch configuration changes and optimizations to its 20,000 IoT devices in the field — helping GLS to streamline operations even further.
Weppler says: “SLES delivers excellent performance, reliability and availability, which is just what we need to keep operations running smoothly. With our SUSE Support subscription, we benefit from continuous improvements to features and stability. We can easily keep our business-critical systems protected using the integrated patch management tools.”
Kolb comments: “Another advantage is that SUSE’s licensing models are very easy to manage. We have a clear overview of the individual systems based on concrete metrics. We don’t need to do any complex calculations based on access, for example.”
Highly satisfied with SLES, GLS IT-Services GmbH is looking to expand its use of SUSE technology in the future.