With its sights set on becoming one of the world’s major container terminal operators, how could Gulftainer ensure that it could set up new sites quickly and easily? The company migrated its SAP business applications and Marine and Container Handling (MACH) system to SAP HANA, deploying two Lenovo System servers to support the mission-critical environment, as well as Lenovo Flex System at its corporate office in Sharjah, UAE, and the Khorfakkan Container Terminal to support its Terminal Operating System (TOS). Today, Gulftainer can scale its server infrastructure as and when needed to meet demanding growth requirements, while deeper insight into operations improves business decision-making.

1. © 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. I © Copyright 2017 Lenovo. All rights reserved. 1
Lenovo customer case study
Gulftainer sets sail for easier expansion with SAP
S/4HANA, MACH and Lenovo

2. © 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. I © Copyright 2017 Lenovo. All rights reserved. 2
Gulftainer
Setting sail for easier expansion with SAP S/4HANA,
MACH and Lenovo
Customer success summary
With its sights set on becoming one of the world’s major container terminal operators,
how could Gulftainer ensure that it could set up new sites quickly and easily? The
company migrated its SAP business applications and Marine and Container Handling
(MACH) system to SAP S/4HANA, deploying two Lenovo System servers to support
the mission-critical environment, as well as Lenovo Flex System at its corporate office
in Sharjah, UAE, and the Khorfakkan Container Terminal to support its Terminal
Operating System (TOS). Today, Gulftainer can scale its server infrastructure as and
when needed to meet demanding growth requirements, while deeper insight into
operations improves business decision-making.
“With Lenovo System x and
Flex System, we have gained
innovative solutions that will
enable us to meet future
demand.”
—Vinay Sharma, Group IT
Head, Gulftainer
Solution components
Applications
• SAP S/4HANA
• Marine and Container Handling
Hardware
• Lenovo Solution for SAP HANA
• Lenovo System x servers with Intel®
Xeon ®
E7 family of processors
• Lenovo Flex System with Intel Xeon
E5 family of processors
Maritime & Logistics
Case Study

3. © 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. I © Copyright 2017 Lenovo. All rights reserved. 3
Maritime & Logistics
Setting sail for easier expansion with SAP S/4HANA, MACH and Lenovo
Headquartered in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Gulftainer is a major privately-owned, independent port
management and third-party logistics company. Operating container terminals across the Middle East, Brazil
and the United States, Gulftainer employs around 4,000 people worldwide.
Vinay Sharma, Group IT Head at Gulftainer, remarks: “As world trade continues to grow, our goal is to become
one of the world’s top ten container terminal operators within the next 10 years.”
Managing the loading and unloading of containers and other cargoes for some of the world’s largest shipping
lines, Gulftainer relies heavily on its SAP® business applications and its Marine and Container Handling (MACH)
system – a Terminal Operating System (TOS) – to support mission-critical container management systems and
back-office workloads.
“As we continue to expand, we want to be able to set up new sites quickly,” says Vinay Sharma. “To do this, we
need to be able to scale-out and scale-up the infrastructure supporting our SAP and MACH application
landscape accordingly. “At the same time, having up-to-the-minute insight into operations is essential to keep
our growing business running as productively and profitably as possible. For this reason, we wanted real-time
insight into business data to support more informed decision-making.”
Finding the right fit
Keen to take advantage of next-generation in-memory technology, Gulftainer decided to migrate its business
applications to SAP HANA®, and sought a high-performance, highly scalable underlying infrastructure solution
to support it.
After evaluating offerings from several vendors, Gulftainer chose to implement a Lenovo server solution as the
foundation for its SAP HANA environment.
Vinay Sharma recalls: “When looking at proposals during our tender process, to replace our existing IBM
infrastructure, we quickly realized that Lenovo would be the best fit for our IT environment. Not only are Lenovo
systems SAP-certified for SAP HANA, they are also fully compatible with our current IBM hardware.”
Challenge
Aiming to become one of the world’s
top container terminal operators,
Gulftainer is expanding rapidly, both in
the UAE and internationally. To get new
sites up and running quickly, the
company wanted a highly scalable,
high-performance infrastructure to
support its mission-critical SAP and
MACH application landscape.
Solution
Gulftainer deployed multiple Lenovo
System x servers to support its new
SAP HANA environment, and a Lenovo
Flex System solution at its corporate
office in Sharjah and the Khorfakkan
Container Terminal. The company’s
enterprise application includes SAP
HANA and MACH supported by the
Lenovo infrastructure solution solution –
enabling Gulftainer to scale quickly as
its business continues to expand.

4. © 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. I © Copyright 2017 Lenovo. All rights reserved. 4
Maritime & Logistics
Aslam Kadar, Assistant Manager for IT Service, states, “We also found that local Lenovo support in the UAE
was more than suitable for our needs. We worked with a trusted technology partner to ensure a smooth
transition, which included direct support.”
Working closely with partner Gulf Business Machines, Gulftainer deployed multiple Lenovo System x servers at
its headquarters in Sharjah. Powered by the Intel® Xeon® E7 processor family with Intel Transactional
Synchronization Extensions, the Lenovo Solution for SAP HANA delivers high performance levels and system
uptime.
An integrated storage system based on IBM Spectrum Scale technology enables Gulftainer to meet all SAP
S/4HANA performance KPIs and to add storage capacity as and when needed, gaining the flexibility it needs to
grow efficiently.
Flexible IT
Jurageswaran Shetty, Manager – IT Security and Infrastructure, comments: “Since migrating our business
applications to SAP HANA, we have powerful in-memory Online Analytical Processing [OLAP] and Online
Transaction Processing [OLTP]. With this deep insight into operations, we have improved business decision-
making, optimized processes, streamlined workflows and unlocked new efficiencies.”
He continues: “The Lenovo System x solution is very scalable. We can scale very quickly, both horizontally and
vertically, enabling us to meet growth requirements as we continue to expand. The scale-out and scale-up
nature of the Lenovo solution makes it easy to adapt to changing business needs.”
Impressed with the high performance and scalability of the Lenovo Solution for SAP HANA, Gulftainer decided
to implement another Lenovo server solution at its Khorfakkan Container Terminal. In need of a hardware
infrastructure to support the TOS for Khorfakkan Container Terminal, the company selected Lenovo Flex
System. Vinay Sharma notes: “Our positive experience with Lenovo technology made it a very easy choice.”
Gulftainer is currently working with GBM to deploy the Lenovo Flex System solution. Once fully implemented,
the company expects to reap the rewards of the small yet powerful solution.
“With Lenovo
System x and Flex
System, we have
gained innovative
solutions that will
enable us to meet
future demand.”
Vinay Sharma
Group IT Head
Gulftainer
Setting sail for easier expansion with SAP S/4HANA, MACH and Lenovo

5. © 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. I © Copyright 2017 Lenovo. All rights reserved. 5
Maritime & Logistics
“The Flex System solution’s small footprint means that we expect to significantly reduce costs for power and
cooling,” says Vinay Sharma. “As with our Lenovo Solution for SAP HANA infrastructure, the highly scalable Flex
System solution will enable us to add compute resources as the port grows.”
He concludes: “With Lenovo System x and Flex System, we have gained innovative solutions that will enable us to
meet future demand. We are highly confident that both Lenovo solutions will support us as we grow and strive to
become one of the world’s largest port terminal operators.”
For more information
To learn more about Lenovo Data Center Systems solutions, contact your Lenovo Sales Representative or Lenovo
Business Partner, or visit: www.lenovo.com/systems
To learn more about Lenovo Solution for SAP HANA, visit: www.lenovo.com/sap/hana
For more information on Gulftainer, visit: www.gulftainer.com
Benefits
•Easy scalability enables Gulftainer to
grow quickly and cost-effectively
•Flexible solution supports Gulftainer as
it strives to become one of the world’s
largest port terminal operators
•High performance ensures that
mission-critical applications run
smoothly
•Deeper insight into operations
improves business decision-making
•Lower power and cooling costs
Setting sail for easier expansion with SAP S/4HANA, MACH and Lenovo

6. © 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. I © Copyright 2017 Lenovo. All rights reserved. 6
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP SE or an
SAP affiliate company.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE
(or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. Please see http://global12.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark
information and notices.
Some software products marketed by SAP SE and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors.
National product specifications may vary.
These materials are provided by SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP SE or
its affiliated companies shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP SE or
SAP affiliate company products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and
services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.
In particular, SAP SE or its affiliated companies have no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this document or any related presentation, or to
develop or release any functionality mentioned therein. This document, or any related presentation, and SAP SE’s or its affiliated companies’ strategy and possible
future developments, products, and/or platform directions and functionality are all subject to change and may be changed by SAP SE or its affiliated companies at any
time for any reason without notice. The information in this document is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. All
forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned
not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates, and they should not be relied upon in making purchasing
decisions.

7. © 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. I © Copyright 2017 Lenovo. All rights reserved. 7
© 2017 Lenovo. All rights reserved.
© Copyright 2010-2017 Lenovo.
Lenovo may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this
document in all countries. Consult your local Lenovo representative for
information on the products and services currently available in your area. Any
reference to a Lenovo product, program, or service is not intended to state or
imply that only that Lenovo product, program, or service may be used. Any
functionally equivalent product, program, or service that does not infringe any
Lenovo intellectual property right may be used instead. However, it is the user’s
responsibility to evaluate and verify the operation of any other product,
program, or service. Lenovo may have patents or pending patent applications
covering subject matter described in this document. The furnishing of this
document does not give you any license to these patents.
You can send license inquiries, in writing, to:
Lenovo (United States), Inc.
1009 Think Place - Building One
Morrisville, NC 27560
U.S.A.
Attention: Lenovo Director of Licensing
LENOVO PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF
ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT,
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Neither this documentation nor any part of it may be copied or reproduced in
any form or by any means or translated into another language, without the prior
consent of Lenovo. This document could include technical inaccuracies or
errors. The information contained in this document is subject to change without
any notice.
Lenovo reserves the right to make any such changes without obligation to notify
any person of such revision or changes. Lenovo makes no commitment to keep
the infor-mation contained herein up to date. Any references in this publication
to non-Lenovo Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any
manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those
Web sites are not part of the materials for this Lenovo product, and use of
those Web sites is at your own risk. Information concerning non-Lenovo
products was obtained from a supplier of these products, published
announcement material, or other publicly available sources and does not
constitute an endorsement of such products by Lenovo. Sources for non-
Lenovo list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly available
informa-tion, including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide home
pages. Lenovo has not tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy
of performance, capability, or any other claims related to non-Lenovo products.
Questions on the capability of non-Lenovo products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products.
Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, System x and For Those Who Do are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other product and service names might be trademarks of Lenovo or other
companies.
A current list of Lenovo trademarks is available on the web at:
http://www.lenovo.com/legal/copytrade.html.
Intel, Intel Xeon, Itanium, and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and
other countries.
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or
both.
Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks
of others.