Pictured Karen O’Connor, Datapac and Robert Byrne, Holfeld Plastics.

Holfeld Plastics has implemented a new IT infrastructure that can scale to meet its requirements.

Holfeld Plastics
Holfeld Plastics is one of Europe’s leading extrusion and thermoforming companies, employing 120 people at its premises in the Vale of Avoca, Co. Wicklow. Established in 1980, to supply foam packaging to the cosmetics industry, Holfeld Plastics Ltd. has grown to be a leading rigid plastics packaging manufacturer in Ireland, the UK and continental Europe. The company currently supplies Bespoke Formings as well as an extensive range of standard trays and containers to customers throughout Europe in rPET, PP & HIPS, in both the food and non-food Sectors.

The Aim
“Our old hardware platform was no longer meeting our requirements. We have to keep pace with developments,” explains Robert Byrne, IT Manager at Holfeld Plastics. “Furthermore, we were installing a new ERP solution and it was critical that the hardware, which hosts the software,was robust and resilient.”

The Solution
Datapac, Holfeld’s preferred ICT partner, recommended highly resilient virtualised hardware with integrated disaster recovery and business continuity. Datapac moved Holfeld’s ERP solution to a more powerful infrastructure which consists of HP Proliant servers, HP Storage Area Networks, VMWare Enterprise Edition, Vizionore and an APC UPS solution whilst integrating with the existing Windows 2003 network and HP Storageworks backup.

“Datapac professionals have expert knowledge in key areas related to high availability, data replication and business continuity, in both planning and solution deployment,” continues Robert.

Datapac worked with Holfeld to integrate its recovery infrastructure into the company’s data network over fibre to its hot site, using technology from VMWare and Vizioncore. Holfeld uses VMWare Virtual Infrastructure Enterprise Edition to host virtual replicas of their production environment off site. This provides online replication of Holfeld’s applications by mirroring them to a hot site location.

“Should a hardware failure occur, all applications can be launched on the backup servers within a matter of minutes,” concludes Robert. “The new hardware suite and virtualisation platform solutions create an agile overall infrastructure that can quickly respond to changes in business needs going forward, empowering efficiencies and maximizing infrastructure investments.”




register for upcoming events

Register for upcoming events

  • Datapac provides IT services to Glanbia
  • Datapac provides ICT infrastrure to Holfeld Plastics