IBM Case Study
BCBS Minnesota achieves a significant
TCO reduction with virtualized Linux on
IBM System z
Overview
■
Challenge
The Microsoft Windows and
Intel processor-based server
landscape at Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Minnesota
(BCBSM) was inflexible and
costly to operate and maintain.
■
Solution
IBM helped consolidate 140 HP
Intel-architecture servers to a
single IBM System z with six
Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL)
engines. Key applications now
run in SUSE Linux Enterprise
virtual servers, while IBM DB2
databases run on z/OS on the
same physical machine.
■
Benefits
BCBSM expects to reduce TCO
significantly over five years;
energy-efficient server platform
helps to achieve green comput-
ing objectives; virtualization cuts
server provisioning times by
99 percent and provides
enormous flexibility to meet
emerging business objectives;
full disaster recovery can be
achieved within 90 minutes—
97 percent faster than before.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
Minnesota (BCBSM) is the largest
health plan in the state, providing
health coverage to more than 2 million
members. With headquarters in
Eagan, MN, and branch offices in
Arrowhead and Rochester, BCBSM
employs 3,800 people and operates as
a not-for-profit, taxable organization:
more than 90 percent of the premiums
it receives are paid back out for health
care claims.
To maintain this high ratio of payouts to
premiums and provide the best possi-
ble value to its members, BCBSM puts
continual downward pressure on its
operational costs. In the IT department,
this translates into a strategy of doing
more with less—choosing the hardware
and software that will drive business
optimization while reducing acquisition,
implementation, support and mainte-
nance costs.
A new platform
“For several years, we had been run-
ning our IBM DB2® databases on the
IBM System z® platform—but our
applications servers, including those for
SAP ERP, were running in a Microsoft®
Windows® environment on Intel®
processor-based hardware from HP,”
explains Ted Mansk, Director of
Infrastructure Engineering and
Databases at BCBSM.
“ From every
perspective, running
applications under
Linux on System z
makes sense for our
organization.
Performance,
reliability, disaster
recovery, server
provisioning and
cost efficiency have
all seen dramatic
improvements—helping
BCBSM deliver better
service and better
value to its members
across the state.”
—
Ted Mansk, Director of
Infrastructure Engineering and
Databases at BCBSM
