Smart IT: The intelligent system

Gayen & Berns . Homann GmbH (GBH), a long established company with a rich tradition, has set its sights on becoming faster, more agile, and more digital. To this end, the Hamburg-based insurance broker has its eye firmly on the future. Its goal: end-to-end digital transformation. MAIT is helping GBH navigate the path to the modern age—with a particularly powerful, semi-autonomous, and intelligent IT system.

GBH has been firmly anchored in the world of Hanseatic merchants and shipowners for over 120 years. With several locations throughout Germany, the family business is also characterized by its close proximity to its customers. Alongside Hamburg, GBH also operates branches in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, and Frankfurt am Main. Today, with 230 employees, GBH is one of the largest owner-managed companies in the insurance industry. The size and reach of the company is matched by its broad customer base. This translates into huge amounts of sensitive, personal data that the insurance business—by its very nature—needs to know. GBH has set itself exceptionally high standards for storing and processing this information—and has long been placing its trust in MAIT. The IT and software specialists have been supplying GBH with secure and powerful servers and workstations for many years.

High standards, tailored solutions

In 2020, Michael Brüggemann became the new Head of IT at Gayen & Berns . Homann. And at the same time, the five-year-old servers were scheduled for replacement. Brüggemann's motto: "I want to buy an IT service, not hardware." His targets: maximum data security, permanent system availability, and high computing speed. Maik Petersen, Senior PreSales Architect, and his team colleague Ralf Schaffeld, Key Account Manager, were undaunted by these requirements. The two IT specialists from MAIT's HybrIT business unit quickly had the right solutions to hand. For one thing, the ultra-powerful, compact, and highly scalable HPE ProLiant servers. And for another, a complete modernization of the internal and external network infrastructure, including optimization of network latency—in other words data speed. But above all: HPE Nimble Storage. This intelligent, largely self-managing flash storage system supported by network virtualization is what ultimately convinced Michael Brüggemann to replace the entire IT. "Our IT system urgently needed a makeover—and not just to improve security and speed, but to be able to use the constantly growing number of new IT features as well," says Brüggemann.

The new IT: smarter, swifter, and more secure

Following rapid installation, the new system landscape was ready for use and positive effects tangible. In figures: HPE Nimble automatically solves up to 86 percent of all storage system problems or prevents them from occurring in the first place. The time and effort required for IT support and maintenance has halved compared to the previous version. The availability of the solution—and therefore of all connected applications—is 99.9999 percent. So what makes all this possible? "The latest technology paired with automation and artificial intelligence ensures more efficient IT operations and a high degree of stability. This frees up the GBH IT department for future digitalization projects," says Maik Petersen. HPE Nimble Storage continuously and independently checks all parameters of the GBH system and compares them with anonymized data from thousands of other systems in the HPE cosmos. This way, the system can detect any difficulties and incompatibilities before they even occur, successfully preventing subsequent problems in connected software applications. As an added bonus, HPE Nimble autonomously performs any necessary updates, automatically extends the partition when the drive fills up, and ensures higher system performance without human intervention should an app need more "oomph". But it's not just storage performance that has increased significantly as a result of the IT renewal. With its sweeping intervention, MAIT has improved the overall computer performance and computing power. The systems are now much faster and the lead times are significantly shorter thanks to flash storage as opposed to conventional hard drives. At the work process level, this means higher productivity, less operating expense, and lower costs. Plus: more data security. The system continuously checks itself, all content is end-to-end encrypted, and an integrated backup solution provides additional protection against loss of data. The client-server model means that the highly sensitive data of thousands of policyholders no longer even leave the central high-security server. While users in the company have access to the data depending on their authorization, their own company tablets, laptops or desktop PCs no longer store any data locally. "It doesn't get any safer than that," says MAIT expert Ralf Schaffeld.

Into the future of IT with MAIT

Michael Brüggemann particularly values MAIT's flexibility: "MAIT is doing a fantastic job. Their service team is always easy to reach, swift to respond, and competent. Even in the event of urgent problems, MAIT rises to the challenge by flexibly deploying its service technicians. And when it's such a good fit from a people perspective as well, then that's the best of all worlds," he says. Of course, they don’t just wait for the alarm bell to sound: Two or three times a week, Brüggemann is in touch with MAIT via Microsoft Teams and the like to sort out quick queries. In addition, MAIT provides other IT services, for instance working remotely and, if required, directly on-site to perform tasks like expanding databases, refurbishing the security environment, and carrying out network refreshes for the locations.

"The cloud is the way to go," Michael Brüggemann emphasizes, and he wants to tackle telephony and content collaboration as a whole. With MAIT, he's come to the right place: From simple cloud backup to individual IT systems, hybrid cloud concepts, and full outsourcing of the entire IT environment, MAIT offers every desired level of intensity. Which services Brüggemann will actually use depends on how they serve his goals. And his biggest goal at the moment is to perfect the digital transformation at Gayen & Berns . Homann, combining tradition and modernity in the best possible way. His reliable partner throughout the process: MAIT.