Case study
High-quality ZEISS microscopes
benefit from robust workstations
HP provides computers for the company’s entire product portfolio,
from desktop devices to complex microscope systems for laboratories
Industry
Optical industry
Objective
ZEISS requires reliable computers that are
available worldwide, with the same configuration
for up to 36 months, to integrate into its
OEM solutions
Approach
HP provides powerful HP Z840 Workstations and
HP Z Displays to meet the needs of the high-end
segment, and cost-effective HP Z240 Workstations
for desktop microscopes
IT matters
•HP Z Workstations and HP DreamColor
Displays are incredibly solid and reliable.
They are easy for the service team to
maintain and upgrade as necessary
Business matters
•When installing devices within complex OEM
solutions, it is essential to ensure that the
hardware will be consistently available with
stable components over the long-term
•The HP workstations are already certified for
global use with Global Warranty Support
“HP won the tender as we have had excellent experiences
with the company’s hardware in the past. Some of the
key factors in our decision were low downtime figures,
long-term hardware availability and global availability
of products and services.”
– Markus Neumann, product manager and senior scientist at ZEISS Microscopy
Guarantee of global support
Premium microscope manufacturer ZEISS has been
using reliable HP Z Workstations in its high-end devices
for many years. Now it is fitting its entry level models
with HP hardware too. The key factors in ZEISS’ decision
were the good experiences it had with its high-end
models, HP’s long-term hardware availability guarantee
and global support services.
Case study | ZEISS
“We believe that the
HP Z workstations with
Intel Xeon processors
are the optimum solution
to ensure that our
customers get the best
possible performance
and stability out of our
microscope systems.”
– Markus Neumann, product manager and
senior scientist at ZEISS Microscopy
Challenge
Need for robust computers
As one of the world’s leading manufacturers
of microscopes, the Germany-based
microscopy business group of ZEISS provides
tailored solutions and services for life
science and materials research as well as for
industry, education and clinical applications.
Besides its excellent light, ion and electron
microscopes, the company also offers
unique light sheet fluorescence systems
and high-resolution X-ray microscopes.
ZEISS Microscopy is headquartered in
Jena, the self-proclaimed City of Light and
heart of Thuringia’s optical industry, with
additional production and development
sites in Germany, Great Britain, and the US.
The company’s products are sold in more
than 40 countries around the world. This
global presence has to be taken into account
by any partners ZEISS chooses to work with
on its OEM products. ZEISS has built up an
excellent reputation around the world over
its long history, and its customers have
come to expect a lot from it in terms of
innovation, ‘Made in Germany’ precision,
ease-of-use and reliability. ZEISS’ vision is
to help its customers push the boundaries
of their imagination by delivering reliable,
stable solutions. One component of the
microscopy solutions ZEISS offers are
computers that have been perfectly tailored
to the situations in which they will be used.
“It is very important for our customers to have
robust computers because they often work
24x7,” says Matthias Müller who is responsible
for quality management at ZEISS Microscopy.
“Our focus is to provide our customers
with very stable, complete solutions so we
need a flexible computer architecture and
components that are consistently available.”
2
The company has been using powerful and
reliable HP Z840 Workstations in its high-end
products for many years. These have to be
extremely robust as some are operated around
the clock. Following its good experiences in
the high-end sector, ZEISS recently decided to
also rely on HP workstations for its desktop
devices. The HP Z240 Workstation series with
its fast Intel Xeon® processors, AMD or NVIDIA®
graphics cards and powerful, modern M.2 SSD
storage provide the necessary performance.
The company also provides HP Z DreamColor
displays in a variety of sizes up to 32 inches.
ZEISS not only requires its systems to be highly
reliable, it also needs delivery and maintenance
services around the world. As HP has both its
own subsidiaries and a wide service network,
it was more than able to fulfil this requirement.
Solution
HP ensures system reliability
Instead of using a single supplier for its devices,
ZEISS prefers to issue regular tenders to ensure
it remains independent. Which makes it all
the more unusual that it recently decided to
source all of the hardware for its microscope
systems from the same manufacturer. ZEISS
had been using HP computers for its larger
devices for a number of years, but after
this equipment passed its very demanding
qualification tests, it has now begun sourcing
the HP Z240 Workstation for its smaller ones.
This means that its entire product portfolio is
now based on HP hardware. “We were already
on our third or fourth generation of larger
systems with HP workstations. Many of these
are operated around the clock, ensuring that
our microscope systems run stably. This factor
is absolutely critical for us. We can’t afford
failures that could cause serious damage to
our brand image,” explains Markus Neumann,
product manager and senior scientist at ZEISS
Microscopy. He adds that the company’s
experiences with HP devices had always been
very good, and that the HP workstations
had proved to be very robust and stable.
Case study | ZEISS
“We use the HP Z
Workstations to ensure
that large data volumes
can be processed as
effectively as possible,
and of course to ensure
the overall stability of
our systems so that our
customers can carry
out their applications as
effectively as possible.”
– Markus Neumann, product manager and
senior scientist at ZEISS Microscopy
ZEISS had a number of reasons to switch
to HP for its smaller systems. According to
Neumann, one of the key advantages was that
the products ZEISS chooses remain available
for a much longer period of time. This means
that the configuration of the devices it
orders remains the same, and the installed
components will always be identical over a
defined time period. He calls this ‘hardware
freezing’. HP guarantees that the hardware
components and configurations of the devices
it offers will not change within the next 18 to
36 months. This is particularly important to
ZEISS as it markets the computers as part
of a complete solution. ZEISS certifies each
individual computer configuration for these
systems to ensure that the hardware can
fulfil all of the requirements of the respective
solution. This comprehensive process of
computer certification is very time-consuming,
often taking months to complete. However, it
is absolutely essential as it ensures that the
entire microscope system will run reliably
and free of errors, and that the various
components are compatible. Industrial
research laboratories around the world rely
on this quality guarantee. In order to ensure
it fulfils this promise to its customers, ZEISS’
systems have to change as little as possible.
“To guarantee that the entire microscope
systems work at their best, we need as little
variation as there can be,” explains Neumann.
“We believe that the HP Z workstations
with Intel Xeon processors are the optimum
solution to ensure that our customers get the
best possible performance and stability out
of our microscope systems and to help drive
their applications that bit further forwards,”
adds Müller. “We use the HP Z Workstations
to ensure that large data volumes can be
processed as effectively as possible, and of
course to ensure the overall stability of our
systems so that our customers can carry out
their applications as effectively as possible”.
Another advantage, the HP devices’
experience incredibly low downtime figures.
Not just on paper, but also in practice:
“We have always had very good experiences
with HP in the past in this respect,” says
Neumann. Another benefit that proved critical
in ZEISS’ decision to expand its relationship
with HP was the company’s global presence
and worldwide certification and availability
of its computers. This includes everything
down to the keyboards, which are available
in a variety of languages and font sets.
For ZEISS, this simplifies how it supplies its
microscopes to the world substantially.
Benefits
Global service through HP is a big plus
As ZEISS does not use the HP computers
itself, but rather integrates them into
comprehensive solutions for its customers,
the clear product structure HP offers with
its workstations is an enormous advantage.
It makes the sales process much easier.
“For sales, it’s easy to differentiate between
workstations for entry level, mid-range and
high-end systems,” says Neumann, describing
one of the day-to-day benefits. The stability
and performance of the computers are
key sales arguments. But smaller features
that improve the devices’ ergonomics also
contributed to HP winning the tender. All of
the products come with handles, which makes
transportation easier and simplifies the work
for service and the IT department. The high
quality fans in the HP computers were another
key factor in the decision. They are designed
to be energy efficient and run extremely
quietly. Due to the sheer number of devices
that tend to be used in research laboratories,
a reduction in fan noise is a clear plus.
In addition, the HP workstations clear,
logical structures further reduce the costs
of maintenance and servicing. ZEISS’
service teams can recognise the individual
components easily and replace them
themselves without too much difficulty if the
need arises. The cases can be opened quickly
and without the need for additional tools.
This means that storage upgrades and
hard drive replacements can be carried out
promptly and without having to bring in a
technician from HP. Staff also benefit from the
clear design of the motherboard. The fact that
the computers are so easy to maintain was
critical in HP being chosen to provide devices
for ZEISS’ entire product portfolio. “Our service
team also likes the HP devices as they are
very easy to maintain,” says Neumann.
Müller says: “The greatest benefits of the HP Z
Workstations with Intel Xeon processors from
our point of view are the global availability of
the systems, their ease of use, the fact that
they provide the best possible performance
in terms of minimum downtime and excellent
integration options, and the long-term system
hardware availability going forward. The HP Z
Workstation has helped us in the sense that its
system performance is particularly stable and
it is a technology that our customers recognise
and understand, one that comes from a
brand that is well-known for its reliability.
For customers expecting professional
performance, HP is simply the best option”.
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Case study | ZEISS
Customer at a glance
Applications
ZEISS Microscopy uses HP workstations of
all sizes as OEM in its microscope solutions
Hardware
•HP Z240 Workstation
•HP Z840 Workstation
•HP Z24n, Z27n, Z32x DreamColor displays
Another benefit for ZEISS is HP’s global
presence. The Jena-based business group
is itself active in more than 40 countries, so
being able to source services from HP around
the world is a clear advantage. It also means
that the company can target additional
customer bases abroad without having to
worry that maintenance and other services
may not be available. This global presence is
not only a benefit in terms of servicing and
maintenance, but also in terms of device
certification. “It was vital for us that HP already
had all of the necessary certificates, and often
more, for the countries we work in,” says
Neumann. On-site contact between ZEISS
Microscopy and HP is incredibly important.
At the headquarters in Germany, staff
can speak to representatives in their own
language and in their own time zone. As can
employees at the company’s subsidiaries
around the world, who have access to the
relevant experts in their region. ZEISS provides
support for its microscopes through its own
team, but problems with the hardware are
referred to HP’s service department.
“Our experience with HP is very
positive. We have the HP Z
Workstation for the larger
systems already in the third
and fourth generation in use.
Many run around the clock
and ensure the stable
operation of our microscope
systems. This is extremely
customer-critical for us, as we
cannot afford any failures.”
– Markus Neumann, product manager and senior
scientist at ZEISS Microscopy
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“The HP Z Workstation does two main
things for us. Firstly, it deals with the
control, the real-time control of the system.
Secondly, it captures images, analyses
them for the customer, everything to do
with processing,” explains Stephan Kuppig,
lead of the ZEISS Microscopy product
management team responsible for laserbased 3D systems. “It has proven to be the
ideal choice for control and image analysis.
For customers expecting professional
performance, it is simply the best option.
Having a well-respected name like HP as
part of its own products is also an enormous
advantage for ZEISS when it comes to
selling its devices to demanding laboratory
customers. The computers are components
of very expensive and complex solutions
that often include microscopes, cameras,
lights and shutters. They are one part
of a whole, and the customers need them to
run smoothly. “The importance of the
HP workstations for the solution as a whole
is very high. If they don’t work, our customers
can’t use the system. However, at the
same time, the customer shouldn’t really
be aware that they are there. When they
see the HP brand, they know that ZEISS is
working with a reliable partner rather than a
cheap, low quality brand,” says Neumann.
This is particularly important as the company’s
offerings are often compared with price leader
products from discounters. The cost pressures
are very high, particularly with the smaller
systems. However, for microscope systems
in the mid-level range, there is a serious
argument that systems need a proven, stable
computer to run reliably. “With higher-priced
systems, up to a million can disappear in the
configuration of the computer, so price is
not a decisive factor,” concludes Neumann.
Learn more at
hp.com/go/zworkstationsoem
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construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
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4AA6-8169EEE, December 2016