Product
Introduction
The HF Mixing Group is probably best known to the rubber and tyre industry. Customers all over the world rely on the expertise of the manufacturer of machines for producing rubber and plastic compounds. And it is precisely these machines that run around the clock for many customers. To ensure the high availability of the machines' databases against system failures and other errors, HF was looking for a reliable and easy-to-use software solution.
Challenge
24/7 production operation and a life cycle of up to 20 years: many customers of the HF Mixing Group use their machines virtually without a break. The connected database servers should also be permanently highly available. And the high-availability solution should be as economical and easy to operate as possible in an emergency. These are requirements that pose a great challenge to every IT and software company.
Solution
Libelle DBShadow was ultimately able to fulfil the wishes of the HF Mixing Group and its customers. The Libelle solution is an easy-to-use solution for time-shifted database mirroring. And the functional principle is patented: after an initial copy, all changes to the production instance of the database are stored in a buffer called a funnel. Only after a defined time interval or in the event of a malfunction are these changes transferred from the funnel to the standby-system. In the meantime, several dozen licences of Libelle DBShadow have been installed in the mixing plants at the customers of the HF Mixing Group.
Customer feedback
"Our goal was to find a solution whose user instructions fit on an A4 sheet," explains Daniel Büdenbender, software developer at HF Mixing Group. Thanks to the ease of use of Libelle DBShadow, this was no problem. The effort of the in-house IT could also be minimised: "We are now more of a control authority in this area and offer our customers the switch back to the production system as a service, for example, in case of database repairs."
Insight
"With our software solutions, we not only serve end customers, but also partners like the HF Mixing Group. This of course gives us exciting feedback, which we use to constantly adapt our services to the specific requirements of existing and potential partners."