Recognizing the limitations of their aging hardware, an event center undertook a comprehensive IT refresh, encompassing their networking, server, storage, virtualization, and backup environments.
When the client initiated their IT refresh project, their infrastructure was already 5-6 years old and required a 400% increase in the number of access points throughout the venue to accommodate the high density of devices used by guests and exhibitors. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project had to be put on hold, resulting in a delay that caused their IT environment to age 2-3 years beyond the original timeline. As a critical component of Utah's tourism industry, the center recognized the urgent need for a comprehensive upgrade to address performance and security concerns, thereby remaining competitive in the marketplace.
VLCM won a highly competitive RFP process and was chosen to revamp their entire infrastructure, from top to bottom. The proposal outlined the requirement for edge switches, over 800 access points, server upgrades, backups, VMware virtualization, and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), all aimed at optimizing IT infrastructure, improving performance, and resilience.
Despite the initial RFP requiring HPE SimpliVity for HCI implementation, VLCM proposed the adoption of HPE Alletra dHCI, a new HCI solution from HPE that is significantly easier to deploy and manage compared to SimpliVity. “What I really like about HPE Alletra dHCI,” says Josh Allen, VLCM Account Executive, “is that there is no additional cost to add the dHCI software when you buy an HPE Alletra storage component. It’s included in the hardware, it just has to run on HPE servers. If the client chooses to run it, great. If they choose not to, they don’t have to. It’s a great solution for organizations looking to integrate hyperconverged infrastructure into their environment at a lower cost.”
HPE Alletra dHCI provides the event center with a unified, scalable, and reliable infrastructure built to meet the complex demands of today's events. The platform streamlines IT management, reducing complexity and minimizing errors. Optimized for performance, it ensures critical applications and services run efficiently and without interruption. Its scalability allows resources to be rapidly adjusted in response to changing event requirements, providing a seamless experience for guests and exhibitors. Additionally, advanced data protection—including built-in backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and replication capabilities—ensures critical data remains secure and accessible even in the event of system disruptions or data loss.
VLCM successfully migrated all of the client’s old data to the new equipment over the weekend and ensured the hyperconverged infrastructure was functioning properly before business hours on Monday.
To meet the demands of providing high-speed and reliable connectivity for thousands of guests, the event center required an exhaustive upgrade to its networking infrastructure. To achieve this, the client upgraded their Edge Switches and added 800 Aruba 500-600 Series Campus Access Points to their network, each equipped with directional antennas to provide sweeping coverage throughout the building and handle high-density traffic.
VLCM took a resourceful approach by leveraging the venue's existing 200 Aruba Access Points, seamlessly integrating them into the upgraded network infrastructure to enhance coverage and reliability without unnecessary additional investment.
HPE Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager enables the event center to enforce granular access policies for each user and device that connects to their network, ensuring that only authorized users and devices can access specific resources. With ClearPass Policy Manager, the event center can also define and enforce role-based access control policies, allowing them to segment their network and provide different levels of access to various types of users or devices. This feature is particularly useful for the center's guests and exhibitors, who may require different levels of access depending on their needs. Additionally, ClearPass Policy Manager provides enhanced security features such as device fingerprinting, which allows the center to identify and block unauthorized devices from accessing their network.
With HPE Aruba Central, the event center’s IT team can manage and monitor their network infrastructure remotely, using a centralized platform. They can configure and manage their network devices, including access points, switches, and gateways, from a single interface, which streamlines network management and reduces the need for on-site maintenance. HPE Aruba Central also provides real-time analytics and reporting, which enables IT to monitor network performance, track usage patterns, and identify potential issues before they become significant problems. IT can also automate routine network tasks, such as software updates and configuration changes, which saves time and reduces the risk of errors.
As part of the comprehensive IT upgrade at the event center, VLCM recommended upgrading to VMware vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus, the industry-leading virtualization platform. This upgrade provided the client with a more scalable, efficient, and secure virtualization environment, allowing the IT team to manage workloads more effectively and deploy resources more efficiently.
The vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus edition offers advanced features such as distributed resource scheduling, distributed power management, and distributed switch, which lets the center to manage its virtualized workloads better and optimize resource allocation. With this upgrade, the client achieved a more efficient and robust virtualization infrastructure, enabling them to meet the demands of modern events and deliver a seamless experience for their guests.
To reduce data complexity and meet long-term data retention goals, VLCM utilized Veeam and ExaGrid’s integrated backup and recovery solution. Veeam is a backup and replication solution that provides fast and reliable backup, recovery, and replication of virtualized applications and data. With Veeam, the center can perform backups more frequently and with greater speed, minimizing the risk of data loss in the event of an outage or disaster. Veeam also provides advanced recovery capabilities, enabling the center to quickly and easily restore individual files, applications, or entire virtual machines.
ExaGrid is a high-performance backup storage solution that provides deduplication and compression capabilities to optimize storage efficiency. This solution allows the center to store more backup data in a smaller footprint, reducing the cost and complexity of backup storage. ExaGrid also provides fast recovery capabilities, enabling the center to restore data quickly and with minimal disruption to its operations.
By combining Veeam and ExaGrid, the event center’s IT team can achieve a more efficient and reliable backup and disaster recovery solution, ensuring they can quickly recover from any data loss or system failure.
“Overall, this project was a massive team effort,” says Josh, “Our HPE and Aruba teams worked really hard to help us ensure that we were going to get the best pricing for the client. The engineering team was instrumental. VLCM engineers came in to install the hundreds of access points, and Kurtis Pickett (VLCM Networking Engineer) and his team ensured they were all lighting up and sending and receiving signals. Altogether, this was definitely a great group project that spanned across several VLCM business units.”
The event center’s top-to-bottom infrastructure upgrade has transformed its aging technology infrastructure into a reliable, high-performance system that can meet the demands of modern-day events. By upgrading their server, storage, networking, virtualization, and backup environments, the client has established a robust and secure technology infrastructure that provides exceptional connectivity and coverage for their guests and exhibitors, positioning them for continued success in the competitive convention and tourism industry.
To learn more about how VLCM helps its customers Get IT Right, please visit our Customer Success Story Library at www.vlcm.com/success-stories.
Our client is a public events center. We have happily accommodated their request to anonymize their name.
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