Zeppelin uses Splunk for pre-emptive maintenance

Zeppelin dates back to the 1870s when, as the name suggests, it used to manufacture large airships designed by founder Ferdinand von Zeppelin. After the Second World War, the company changed direction, and is now known mostly for providing construction equipment rentals. Andreas Zientek, systems engineer at the brand, explains how Zeppelin began using Splunk's free license in 2010, and now has a 100GB license as the firm absorbs more data from its various systems including VM Ware, an in-house SAP system and various databases. "All the data these systems produce, like log files or performance data, we index in Splunk," he says. Where previously the firm used Splunk for monitoring, reporting, performance analysis and performance optimisation, it began using it for other business and internet of things (IoT) use cases in 2017.