OREANDA-NEWS. March 01, 2013. TATNEFT Company jointly with Microsoft has completed a large-scale project to upgrade the corporate information system architecture (ARMITS) on the Microsoft SQL Server basis.

The transition from the previously used distributed architecture to a centralized system will allow improving the system performance and reducing the costs of administration and operation of hardware and software resources by up to 15 percent, while the costs of database technical support have decreased 9-fold.

The corporate information system ARMITS is the basic system of operational control and management of crude oil production processes of JSC TATNEFT and provides efficient oil fields development. It accumulates large amounts of data from a variety of telemetry and remote process control systems. This information is a basis for determination of the key planned targets of the Company.

Currently, the users of the system are 3.5 thousand specialists of different levels and profiles from almost all the departments of JSC TATNEFT: from production shop personnel to top managers.

Initially the Company used a distributed architecture of the system: database servers were located in nine oil and gas production boards (NGDU). However, this conceptual framework required improvements over time. The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 platform was selected to improve the system responsiveness and expand the system's new functionality.

Centralization of ARMITS architecture was implemented in two phases. In the first stage, all nine database servers of the oil and gas production boards were replaced by a single failover cluster of four HP ProLiant servers on the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Data Center platform. The cluster is located in the Data Processing Center of TATNEFT. The work was completed in a few months by the IT Department of TATNEFT and consultants of Microsoft Consulting Services. The new failover architecture ensures stable operation of a single database server around the clock.

The second stage of the project was creation of a data warehouse and placing historical information in it, which had earlier been collected in the online database, which used to substantially reduce the system response speed. In addition, the cumulative production figures represent the most valuable information for in-depth analysis and strategic decisions taking based on this knowledge.

A single corporate data warehouse has been created based on Fast Track Data Warehouse 3.0 and HP equipment with a storage capacity up to 6 terabytes (possible future expansion up to 12 or 48 TB).

At present analytical servers based on Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and PowerView tools are being deployed at TATNEFT, which will provide for accessing, visualizing and efficient analytical processing of data from both the operational database and date warehouse.

The single corporate repository will ensure completeness and consistency of information throughout the Company and will help to establish diversified reporting for decision talking support. The plans provide that the work of filling the data storage and generation of analytical applications will be completed in early 2013, after which the system can be brought to commercial operation.

The dedicated storage of historical information based on Fast Track Data Warehouse 3.0, where all the accumulated over more than a half century of TATNEFT data will be consolidated, will provide for efficient capabilities for in-depth analysis and forecast of the Company's Development.