Overview
Business Challenge
Edesal S.A., part of the Rovella Capital Group, is the leading electricity distribution company in the province of San Luis, Argentina, serving more than 250,000 customers.
The company’s core commercial systems ran on IBM Power7 servers using Oracle Database — infrastructure that had reached the end of its lifecycle.
When a hardware failure caused a total outage across its on-premises systems, Edesal’s IT team faced a week-long disruption in critical services such as billing and customer management. The incident underscored the company’s urgent need for a modern, resilient platform capable of supporting business continuity and future growth — without the heavy upfront investment required for new hardware.
“Edesal S.A. couldn’t send digital invoices, process payments, or confirm customer billing. The blackout impacted the commercial system, interrupting normal operations and transactions from being processed,” recalls Agustina Paula Frisciotti, IBM Cloud Leader for Argentina.
Transformation Journey
Edesal turned to Efra-Ing S.A., an IBM Business Partner with two decades of experience in Power systems, to design and implement a modernization plan using IBM Power Virtual Server (PowerVS) and IBM Cloud.
Phase 1: Building Resilience with Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery
Efra-Ing S.A. first established a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) using IBM Power Virtual Server and IBM Cloud. Efra-Ing began by deploying a Power9-based DR environment in IBM Cloud (Brazil region) using Oracle Data Guard for real-time database replication. This setup gave Edesal its first-ever disaster recovery site and enabled rigorous testing to validate application compatibility, performance, and failover processes in the cloud. This provided a secure, cloud-based failover environment that could be activated instantly in case of another hardware failure — ensuring business continuity while allowing the IT team to validate performance and compatibility in the cloud.
“After the blackout, Edesal needed a fast and reliable solution. We proposed PowerVS as the quickest path to resilience and modernization. The migration started with disaster recovery. Once the client saw how PowerVS performed, they decided to move their full production environment to IBM Cloud.” - explains Sergio Herrera, Technical Director at Efra-Ing S.A..
Phase 2: Full Migration and Modernization
Once the DRP was in place, Edesal migrated its entire production environment from on-premises Power7 to Power10 on IBM Cloud.
The project involved multiple upgrades:
- AIX: from version 7.1 to 7.3
- Oracle Database: from version 11 to 19
- Application modernization: updates to Java, Tomcat, and other dependencies
- Custom workload migration: Edesal’s in-house maintained commercial application, running on Oracle Database.
This full-stack modernization was achieved within a single integrated project — a complex but successful transition.
“The project helped us overcome technological obsolescence without a large initial investment,” said Cristian Ferrero, IT Manager at Edesal. “It insulated us from Argentina’s economic fluctuations and import restrictions, giving us greater stability and control.”
Results
Edesal’s shift to IBM Power Virtual Server delivered significant operational and financial benefits:
· Performance Boost: Achieved 100% performance improvement after moving to Power10.
· Lower Licensing Costs: Reduced Oracle processor licenses through workload consolidation.
· Business Continuity: Cloud-based DR environment eliminates risk of downtime.
· Cost Efficiency: Pay-as-you-go cloud model avoids large capital expenses.
· Simplified Management: IBM Cloud manages infrastructure, freeing Edesal’s IT team to focus on innovation.
“We now only pay for the resources we use,” Ferrero added. “In the past, we had to overbuy capacity for future growth. With PowerVS, we can scale as needed — it’s extremely valuable for us.”
Looking Ahead
Edesal has now fully modernized its core IT infrastructure — running Power10 workloads on IBM Cloud, with resilience built into every layer. The company continues to explore new opportunities to extend automation and analytics capabilities, confident in the scalability and reliability of IBM Power Virtual Server.
“Edesal went from a blackout to a fully modernized, cloud-based environment with built-in disaster recovery,” said Herrera. “With IBM and Efra-Ing S.A., they now have better performance, lower costs, and the flexibility to power their business into the future with confidence.”