Peerless Clothing

Highlights

Deployed SAP applications on Linux platform, saving at least US$700,000 compared to the cost of a UNIX-based solution
Reduced hardware by 90 percent
Reduced desktop imaging time by 90 percent

Products

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ›

Peerless Clothing deployed its SAP environment on SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server, saving at least US$700,000 compared to the cost of a UNIX-based solution, and reducing desktop imaging time by 90 percent.

Overview

Founded in 1919, Peerless Clothing, Inc. is the largest domestic producer of men’s tailored clothing in North America, producing clothing for designer labels including Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and TALLIA. The company supplies men’s tailored clothing to most every major department and specialty store retailer in the United States.

The Challenge

Peerless Clothing has doubled its revenue in the past few years and maintaining its business on UNIX was becoming too costly and inflexible. The company needed a stable and flexible platform to introduce many new SAP applications. Consolidating its IT environment as much as possible would also help reduce maintenance and hardware costs.

With three geographically dispersed locations, the IT staff spent much of its time traveling to other offices to manage and update workstations. Imaging a new machine could take up to four hours and tracking its IT assets was a manual, time consuming process. As a result, centralized desktop management was a top priority for the small IT staff at Peerless Clothing.

“We looked at Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but found that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server offers better support for open standards.”

JOFFREY BIENVENUE

IS Infrastructure and Operations Manager

Peerless Clothing

SUSE Solution

When evaluating platforms for its new SAP business applications, Peerless Clothing considered upgrading its HP-UX environment running on RISC hardware or migrating to Linux. After determining that UNIX would be cost-prohibitive, the company evaluated Red Hat and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server before selecting a SUSE solution. The company worked with Adaris Technolgies, a SUSE Platinum partner, to implement its Linux solution.

“Moving our UNIX environment to Linux made a lot of sense because our staff didn’t require a lot of retraining,” said Joffrey Bienvenue, IS Infrastructure and Operations Manager at Peerless Clothing. “We looked at Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but found that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server offers better support for open standards.”

Peerless Clothing deployed several of its mission-critical applications on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, including SAP NetWeaver, SAP business warehouse applications, SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP Knowledge Management, Novell GroupWise as well as its shop floor application. Using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and VMware for virtualization, the IT staff has consolidated its HP and IBM servers tenfold.

“SAP systems require a lot of memory so had we gone with a UNIX-based platform, we would have been forced to make a significant investment in new hardware,” said Bienvenue. “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server allows us to leverage inexpensive midrange commodity hardware, and by using VMware to virtualize our Linux servers, we can quickly respond to the needs of the business by adding new servers in no time.” With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, the IT staff now has a solid development platform and can take advantage of open source tools and applications.

“We are passionate about SUSE solutions at Adaris and were excited to help Peerless Clothing in their migration to Linux,” said Jacques Sauve, President of Adaris Technologies. “For mission-critical ERP applications and production environments, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server provides superior uptime and stability for a fraction of the cost of a UNIX solution.”

Using Novell ZENworks, the IT staff has created standard desktop images and can now remotely image machines in just 20 minutes. The IT staff can deliver new applications company-wide in days, rather than weeks, and without having to visit individual workstations. The company also uses Novell ZENworks Linux Management to centrally manage its Linux servers and plans to upgrade to Novell ZENworks Configuration Management to integrate its desktop and server management.

Novell GroupWise provides a solid collaboration platform and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Novell GroupWise makes it easy for BlackBerry users to stay current with their email and calendars, regardless of their location.

The Results

By deploying its SAP environment on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Peerless Clothing has saved at least US$700,000 compared to the cost of a UNIX solution. By virtualizing its servers, the company has also reduced its hardware by 90 percent and can deploy new servers in a matter of hours.

They have reduced desktop imaging time by 90 percent, which allows a small IT team to keep pace with the company’s growth. The company estimates that the new solutions paid for themselves in the first six months.

“By leveraging SUSE solutions, we’re able to support the company’s growth without having to add additional IT resources or make considerable investments in hardware and software,” said Bienvenue. “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server gives us the biggest bang for the buck with all the tools we need to deploy, manage and monitor our IT environment.”