Database archiving with Chronos reduces storage costs for car manufacturer

The BMW Group relies on the Chronos solution from CSP to reduce its storage costs. Chronos archives the data of an Oracle database at BMW and thus enables the secure storage of data from production, which must be kept available over the lifetime of a vehicle model of around eight years. Before the introduction of an archiving solution, the high volume of data in the production area had led to a rapidly growing database, which on the one hand drastically increased costs, but on the other hand also increasingly impaired the performance of the database. With Chronos, the BMW Group archives its data on a monthly basis.

Just looking at the Chronos archiving of process data in one section of a plant at the BMW Group shows the low volume of data that makes the use of the solution worthwhile. Around 3.75 million data records are stored here every month, which corresponds to a volume of around 125 MB in the archive. Around 20 gigabytes of storage volume are saved in the database each year. Since using the archiving solution, 65 gigabytes have already been saved. With a moderate cost consideration of a few euros per month per gigabyte and taking into account additional storage space reductions in the index and backup area, enormous savings can already be achieved here.

Chronos integrated very well into the car manufacturer's existing infrastructure, so that no technical and only a few organizational adjustments were necessary. The archived data can be accessed quickly and easily by employees at any time. This access is facilitated in particular by an integrated search function.
The simple and uncomplicated archiving tool for large amounts of data makes BMW independent of previous and future database versions as well as applications. The implementation of the solution started with Oracle version 8; a switch to the Oracle 10 database is planned for the future. Chronos takes this lifecycle into account automatically and displays the data in a standardized way for the employee. A further advantage of the solution and at the same time one of BMW's main expectations of the product is the uncomplicated access to data: archived data can be made available as required either by re-importing it into the productive system or by sending search results directly from the archive by e-mail. The manufacturer, CSP from Großköllnbach, supports the BMW Group with professional user support for Chronos as well as with individual adaptations to the databases.

Chronos naturally meets the compliance requirements for such a long-term archiving solution and can be integrated into any existing applications. Chronos supports comprehensive information lifecycle management, while at the same time solving storage and performance problems. In addition, the software from CSP impresses with its rapid amortization even in environments with lower data volumes. As a Java-based solution, it is available for many operating systems, including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 as well as Linux, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX and HP-UX. Chronos is equipped with a graphical user interface. This supports the configuration and monitoring of archiving processes. The administration is separate from the actual user interface so that it can be carried out by a dedicated, specially trained group of employees.

"The installation at the BMW Group is a typical application example for our Chronos database archiving solution," comments CEO of CSP Korbinian Hermann. "Relieving databases, increasing performance and reducing costs - these are important issues for companies of all sizes. In many companies, the storage requirements increase to at least three times the actual usable size due to standard security mechanisms for databases, backups and indexes for fast access. This means that the use of Chronos pays for itself within a very short time."