Case Study: Hellmann Worldwide Logistics achieves fast, secure, highly available global portal access with Citrix NetScaler

Fast and secure access to global portal environment

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, a global logistics provider active in 157 countries, runs a mission‑critical IBM WebSphere customer and employee portal used by some 25,000 users (peaks ~1,500 concurrent). The company relied on a Novell iChain proxy to offload SSL and authentication, but when that product was discontinued Hellmann needed a hardware‑based replacement that could provide SSL/auth offload, web optimization, granular access control and an easy management model.

Hellmann deployed Citrix NetScaler MPX appliances (with AppExpert management), which provide L4–7 traffic management, SSL and authentication offload (TAI), and HTTP compression. The change reduced backend CPU load by about 5% and login time by ~15%, cut transmitted data by ~30%, improved availability and load balancing for the portal, and enabled fast, template‑based rollout across multiple data centers and VPN access for remote users.

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics

Andreas Goretzky

IS Global Director