C U S TO M E R C A S E S T U DY

S I B U R | 1

CUSTOMERSIBUR

WEBSITEWWW.SIBUR.RU

SECTORPETROCHEMICALS

LOCATIONRUSSIA, MOSCOW

MAIN OBJECTIVES AND CHALLENGES

• To increase IT availability of remote enterprises

• To optimize the costs of managing remote infrastructure

• To support the transition to the Software Defi ned Data Center

SOLUTION

SIBUR deployed VMware vSAN 6 at two production sites (SIBUR-Kstovo) and Biaxplen to bring the management of subsidiaries infrastructure to a new level and rationalize the use of the IT services budget.

BUSINESS ADVANTAGES

• High fl exibility

• Reliable and e� cient solution

SIBUR is the largest integrated petrochemical company in Russia. As an industry leader, the business strives to maintain high standards in the production of chemicals and to support them with a highly e� cient IT infrastructure. As part of a large-scale digitalization of its enterprises including the holding company in 2017, SIBUR decided to change the development trajectory of its IT infrastructure by moving to the Software Defi ned Data Center architecture. The fi rst stage was pilot deployment of VMware vSAN at the two sites. By the end of 2019, it plans to commission a vSAN cluster at three additional locations.

The SIBUR group processes and sells its petrochemical products in the Russian and international markets in 2 business segments: olefi ns and polyolefi ns (polypropylene, polyethylene, BOPP fi lms, etc.) and plastics, elastomers and intermediate products (synthetic rubbers, EPS, PET, etc.). Among SIBUR customers there are companies from the automotive and construction industries, fuel, energy and chemical industries and the FMCG sector in 80 countries worldwide. It operates production sites in 20 regions of Russia and employs more than 27,000 specialists. In 2017, SIBUR reported a revenue of 7.8 billion USD and adjusted EBITDA of 2.9 billion USD.

Problems and ChallengesThe transition to a digital economy signifi cantly a� ects the development of Russian industry. In an e� ort to improve e� ciency and safety at enterprises, companies integrate standard manufacturing processes and cutting-edge digital tools, including advanced equipment monitoring and analytics systems, Internet of Things, and VR technology. However, a robust and reliable IT infrastructure should be the backbone of all technological transformations.

Due to specifi cs of the petrochemical industry, the production facilities of SIBUR are geographically remote from the headquarters. Having analysed the enterprises across the business, the experts came to the conclusion that the management of its branches IT infrastructure can be signifi cantly improved both in terms of budget savings and increase in the volume of IT services.

“The internal audit showed that at some sites, the required volume of infrastructure components of servers and data storage systems was insu� cient. We were faced with the task of optimizing both the operation and costs of IT at our subsidiaries without detriment to performance,” said Leonid Medvensky, chief expert on IT operation, development of IT infrastructure and communications at SIBUR.

SolutionAs a result, the company made a strategic decision to move the majority of enterprises to the Software Defi ned Data Center architecture. In addition to the

RUSSIAN PETROCHEMICAL LEADER INCREASED IT AVAILABILITY AT ITS SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES

VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.comCopyright © 2019 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Item No: 18Q4 SIBUR EN

RUSSIAN PETROCHEMICAL LEADER INCREASED IT AVAILABILITY AT ITS SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES

“Reliability, cost efficiency, as well

as simplifying the operation of

equipment were the most critical

parameters in this implementation

for us. VMware vSAN has really

proved its worth at the site

with a small workload, and we

have already begun to test its

capabilities at two locations with a

large number of virtual machines.”

LEONID MEDVENSKYCHIEF EXPERT ON IT OPERATIONS, DEVELOPMENT OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS

VMWARE FOOTPRINT

• VMware vSAN 6

• VMware vSphere 6.5

• VMware vRealize Operation Management

• VMware vRealize Automation

“At present, SIBUR is implementing

a large-scale digitalization

program for all the enterprises

which are located among 20

regions of Russia. From a business

standpoint, by implementing

VMware technology, we managed

both to address a specific

challenge at one of the sites and

familiarize ourselves with new

strategic IT initiatives in the field

of virtualization.”

LEONID MEDVENSKYCHIEF EXPERT ON IT OPERATIONS, DEVELOPMENT OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS

long-used server virtualization (at some enterprises it has covered the entire server infrastructure), SIBUR planned a migration to software-defi ned storage systems (SDS) and software-defi ned networks (SDN), and in 2018, they introduced VMware vRealize Automation to simplify deployment and management of virtual resources.

The fi rst stage of the strategy implementation was the transition to Software Defi ned Storage. The company was looking for the simplest solution that would support local tactical tasks and at the same time would help to gauge the relevance of the storage systems virtualization for other SIBUR production sites.

Having carried out comprehensive testing of all leading products in the hyper-converged platforms market, including HPE Simplivity, Nutanix, Cisco Hyper Flex, however, VMware vSAN turned out to be the most cost-e� cient and convenient to use solution among those presented. The company has already had a positive experience of upgrading its IT infrastructure using VMware products: SIBUR has been operating VMware vSphere 6.5 successfully for several years. This experience was another argument in favour of vSAN.

“Reliability, cost e� ciency, as well as simplifying the operation of equipment were the most critical parameters in this implementation for us. VMware vSAN has really proved its worth at the site with a small workload, and we have already begun to test its capabilities at two locations with a large number of virtual machines,” said Leonid Medvensky, chief expert on IT operations, development of IT infrastructure and communications at SIBUR.

Results and Business AdvantagesThe pilot project has been deployed at one of the production sites of “SIBUR-Kstovo”, where vSAN is the only hyper-converged infrastructure used. Following the success of its operation, it was decided to introduce the product at the remaining locations. In December 2018, the solution was implemented at another subsidiary called “Biaxplen”, and by the end of 2019, it is scheduled to be launched at three more sites.

The customer notes that by the end of the pilot project they had simplifi ed the maintenance of IT systems signifi cantly and increased their availability by half. During the fi rst year of operation, there were no failures leading to the interruption of services. In addition, as early as in the fi rst months of using the VMware vSAN-based infrastructure, SIBUR has managed to save about 25 % of the capital costs of replacing servers and data storage systems.

“At present, SIBUR is implementing a large-scale digitalization program for all the enterprises which are located among 20 regions of Russia. From a business standpoint, by implementing VMware technology, we managed both to address a specifi c challenge at one of the sites and familiarize ourselves with new strategic IT initiatives in the fi eld of virtualization,” commented Leonid Medvensky, chief expert on IT operation, development of IT infrastructure and communications at SIBUR.

Future PlansBy the end of 2019, SIBUR plans to scale up the vSAN solution to three more subsidiaries.