Finnsteve Oy Ab, part of the Finnlines Group, is the largest port operator specializing in unit transport in the ports of Helsinki and Turku. The company provides the necessary port services such as stevedoring, terminal functions, and storage.
Finnsteve’s port operating system is a critical part of the company’s smooth operations. Its stable operation and high service availability are essential for the smooth functioning of the ports.
Port operations is highly critical business
“In a port, goods have to move constantly. This was one of the reasons why the IBM iSeries environment was chosen in the first place. It has provided the critical reliability and continuity we need.“, says Kimmo Kostia, Head of Group IT, Hardware, Finnlines Group, Finnsteve.
Finnsteve wanted to ensure the continuity and smoothness of the service in the future, so the decision was made to move the equipment to Kaita Finland Oy’s modern high-availability data center, which has technical solutions that ensure the platform’s functionality.
Strong expertise
“The reason behind the move was Kaita’s experience and expertise with our hardware. We knew that Kaita’s people have good expertise in this area. The same people have been maintaining our equipment for a very long time”, says Kostia.
It is also very important that the service is available quickly around the clock, and always in Finnish. Verifying the operation of Finnsteve’s technically challenging duplicated server environment requires administrators to know the platform well.
“Because the business is so critical, we have implemented a duplicated environment. Kaita’s people know and understand our system. We also knew that this was such a specialised entity that we wanted, if at all possible, to keep the same people behind the scenes to make the system really work.”
Careful planning is essential
The move was carefully planned from start to finish. Finnsteve does not work through the night, but depending on the shipping traffic, there is practically a half-night to early morning window available for interruptions, even on weekends. Otherwise, the system must be available at all times.
“The transfer project itself went really well and there were no surprises. The move was carefully and precisely planned and timed”, says Kostia. “Kaita’s people had already moved Finnsteve’s equipment once before and the move was carefully documented. The move went well back then and we were able to plan this move based on that experience. There was hardly any additional disruption for us”, Kostia continues.
Support when needed
At Finnsteve, the issue of skills has also arisen as people retire, and Kaita’s experts and data center services have provided a solution.
“The value of Kaita lies in the fact that we always have access to an expert who knows our environment and has long experience with our solution”, says Kostia.
