Marking its entry into the final stages of Year 2000-compliance projects, South African Airways (SAA) has closed its tender for enterprise storage, awarding EMC SA the R4,3 million contract.
Two EMC Enterprise Storage subsystems, one linked to the airline`s primary S/390 mainframe and the other to a second host 500m away, will be used to store real time copies of production data for online Y2K testing.
The two sites are connected via a high speed fibre channel link. Boasting over two terabytes of storage capacity, the subsystems can be upgraded to a total of 12 terabytes as and when the airline creates the demand.
SAA`s deadline for compliance is December 31, 1998, says Terry Ramabulana, the carrier`s executive manager for Information Technology and Services. All systems - be they computer software or hardware, airport facilities and even aircraft components - will have to be fully compliant.
"We have looked to our suppliers for assurances of the continued operation of their products into the next millennium. It is now up to us to ensure we are on time," says Ramabulana.
"EMC was awarded the tender because it offers what is essentially a complete Year 2000 testing solution."
SAA was an existing site for the enterprise storage provider; two subsystems were purchased in 1994. With those in place, says Alvaro Bronze, senior account manager at EMC, the airline was already aware of the products` capabilities.
"Our two Symmetrix 4800s are still in operation, driving the airline computer systems (ARCS). The machines are fully depreciated and still delivering business value.
"As part of its Y2K project, SAA has now also chosen EMC Timefinder - software that creates independently addressable business continuance volumes [BCVs] away from the main production drives so testing can be carried out virtually online."
Traditionally, data is migrated to tape and then tested for compliance. TimeFinder approaches the task in a different way, working in concert with servers and the Symmetrix storage system.
BCVs - created in background mode as and when the administrators require them, are mirror images of active production data that can be used to run simultaneous tasks in parallel. This capability, known as workload compression, increases productivity and efficiency without sacrificing support for users who need access to the mainframe.
For SAA, Y2K testing can therefore be carried out on real - not simulated - data. The source files can be synchronised once the tests are complete. This means `what if` scenarios generate more accurate results, says Bronze.
"It`s now possible for the company to develop or debug applications faster. These can then be installed and implemented with a higher degree of certainty as to their Y2K-compliance and their organisational benefit."
The EMC systems are complementing SAA`s greater drive for Y2K-compliance. And Ramabulana believes the carrier is well in tune with global trends, and is, in some senses, ahead of the game.
SAA sits on several steering committees at local and international level, he says, that include representatives from IT, business and government. The committees are looking to gather information from existing testing to help the rest of the continent and the world cope with the millennium bug.
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