Computer Associates International has announced that Mekorot, Israel`s water company, is deploying CA`s UnicenterTNG to manage the information system of its vast national network connecting the entire Israeli water supply system.
In a semi-desert country like Israel, the water supply system is mission-critical to the well-being of every citizen and every business. Water in Israel is mainly pumped from 1,420 wells, supplemented by a major pipe-and-funnel water carrier which diverts most of the Jordan River flow to the desert some 200 miles away. In addition, 23 desalination plants produce potable water for isolated desert settlements and for the tourist haven of Eilat, on the shores of the Red Sea.
This complex and closely regulated operation is controlled by a vast network of Unix and Windows NT machines, interconnected by NetWare and Windows NT LANs and a countrywide WAN. From the central control room, a Mekorot engineer can control every pump and every flow-control device on the network. In Israel, there are few more critical applications.
Mekorot`s implementation of Unicenter TNG covers real-time management of the entire IT infrastructure and water distribution system, including every server, desktop, network, database and application. "Our mandate is to provide a highly reliable and efficient water utility to all users in urban, domestic, industrial and agricultural areas," says Julio Cohen, Mekorot`s chief technology officer. "We expect Unicenter TNG to greatly improve overall performance, reduce costs and enhance reliability."
In evaluating enterprise management systems, Mekorot sought to deploy a robust solution that could be extended end-to-end across all operations. "We were concerned about system reliability and performance in an ever-changing environment," explains Cohen. "We were moving to a distributed architecture and couldn`t run the risk of losing the centralized control that legacy systems provided. We believe that Unicenter TNG will provide the level of manageability that we deemed essential." Mekorot determined that Unicenter TNG provided all the functionality required for immediate deployment, as well as an extensible open architecture for other management tasks. Mekorot also plans to use Unicenter TNG to monitor and control non-IT devices, especially water distribution equipment. "Mekorot is another example of how, when it comes to services that are truly critical, Unicenter TNG is the consistent management solution-of-choice," comments Israel Levi, CA vice president and CA-Israel country manager. "It is very rewarding to be selected to manage the IT infrastructure that supports Israel`s water supply, and we look forward to seeing Mekorot`s solution extended to the instrumentation of the water-control equipment itself."
The Mekorot Water Company is a public utility, which has developed Israel`s water supply systems on a nationwide scale since 1937, and today supplies 66% of the country`s water needs. A government owned corporation, Mekorot is a profitable enterprise despite the fact that water allocations and prices are fixed. Mekorot is being re-organized into a parent company, Mekorot Holdings, and subsidiaries that will separate its national utility functions from purely commercial activities in sewage, municipal water supply, desalination and quality control. The company will become a unique worldwide model of a nationally owned utility with private sector participation.
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