A.Schulman chooses FlexPod and Backup as a Service of Proact

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International supplier of plastic compounds wants to reduce server park by 80 per cent

A. Schulman is streamlining its European operations, based on a centrally managed IT environment. At A. Schulman, Proact implemented FlexPod, allowing the company to reduce its server park by 80 percent.

A. Schulman is migrating its European country organization to a fully integrated European company structure. As a result, the company is also carrying out a comprehensive ICT integration exercise at European level. The consolidation of the European server park proved to be one of the major challenges. "First of all, we made a list of all the servers that were in use across our European sites", said Wim Nagels, ICT Director EMEA at A. Schulman. "The list contained no less than 160 physical servers: a very heterogeneous server park that offered little to no ground for integration."

A. Schulman decided to consolidate its server environment over a period of one to two years, starting with a limited scope, based on FlexPod. Storage and cloud integrator Proact’s solution FlexPod is a data center platform for hosting virtualized applications. The platform combines products from NetApp, Cisco and VMware.

Wim Nagels: "FlexPod offers the flexibility we need. We can set up new virtualized servers in a matter of minutes, quickly responding to our business needs. FlexPod also allows us to quickly roll out a standardized IT environment throughout our entire European organization." Additionally, Proact implemented Backupas a Service of Proact as the backup solution for A. Schulman’s business critical systems. Wim Nagels: "Using FlexPod, we expect to reduce our server park by 80 percent."

About A. Schulman
A. Schulman is a leading international supplier of high-performance plastic compounds and resins. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio the company employs 3,000 people and is listed at Nasdaq. In Belgium, A. Schulman operates production sites in Bornem and Opglabbeek, and has a general office in Londerzeel.

About Proact
Proact is Europe’s leading independent integrator in the fields of data storage and cloud solutions. Proact supplies business benefits by helping companies and authorities over the world to reduce risk and costs, and above all, to supply flexible, accessible and secure IT services.

Proact solutions cover all elements of data storage, including virtualisation, network functions and security, and the company has more than 3 500 successful projects behind it, along with vast information volumes which are managed at the Proact data centre.

The Proact Group has more than 670 employees and conducts business in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Proact was founded in 1994. Proact IT Group AB (publ), its Parent Company, has been listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm since 1999 under the symbol PACT.

For further information about Proact’s activities please visit us at www.proact.se

For further information, please contact:

Sander Dekker, Commercial Director Proact Netherlands BV & Managing Director, Proact Belgium BVBA, tel. +31 30 30 33 200, sander.dekker@proact.nl

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Proact was responsible for the implementation and management of the FlexPod project. Thanks to the excellent knowledge transfer, we can now grow and expand the project with our own people.
Wim Nagels, ICT Director EMEA at A. Schulman
“The leading IT magazine in Belgium, Data News, elected Wim Nagels as ICT Manager of the Year, Large Organizations last year. A laureate of such a prestigious election choosing for Back-up as a Service and FlexPod by Proact, is an important recognition of our capabilities. The combination of FlexPod and Back-up as a Service offers A. Schulman multiple advantages. Both A. Schulman and Proact are international companies, which also leads to interesting opportunities for future collaboration.”
Jan Barbier, Sales Director Belgium at Proact