“CDW helped us understand how we could virtualize certain applications in our data center to make them more beneficial for our use and make them more flexible and scalable so we could use them in the future,”
- Team CIO
All of this is controlled in a 5,000 square foot data center, which is surprisingly small. The team is made up of over 30 companies, 90 different locations, and under 500 employees. The new data center made it possible to manage all of these companies out of one, central location.
The data center has about 100 TBs of data. It runs all of the teams different operations. They’re able to access data very quickly to generate the reports they need, especially on game day. The team is now able to see how many hot dogs, hamburgers and sodas have been sold in real-time. In addition, the merchandising staff can monitor inventory on the fly and replenish supplies if certain stores in the stadium are running low.
“CDW helped us understand how we could virtualize certain applications in our data center to make them more beneficial for our use and make them more flexible and scalable so we could use them in the future,” explains the team CIO. "CDW helped the team understand how virtualization and storage can work in conjunction with each other. They helped the team design the most optimal solution for their technology."
Data Center
The data center is the nerve center of the stadium. There was not a lot of technology in the old stadium and the team wanted a change. “Really, we'd turn on the lights and roll out the footballs and they'd go after it. The only technology we had there was a little bit in the press box for the media. Other than that, it was pretty antiquated technology,” says the team’s Director of Enterprise Infrastructure.
In order to deliver the ultimate fan experience today and into the future, the team knew they would need a data center that can keep up with the times. “We get different trends in the industry for video, voice, computers and handhelds, and now we're able to layer that on top of the infrastructure that we put in place and offer the fans a better experience each and every year,” says team CIO.
CDW solution architects went to the team’s headquarters to discuss needs for the new stadium. They assessed the existing infrastructure and came armed with information on all the latest technologies including blade servers, SAN and tape backup.
“We were basically there to consult with the customer, on-site. We would sit down, 3-4 hour meetings, to go over speeds, feeds and capabilities, and really get a good understanding of how we were going to address all the challenges of and the needs they would have to face,” says a CDW Account Manager on the project.
CDW representatives were on site with the team on a daily basis throughout the 18-month plan-to-implementation process, helping to assess, design, install and maintain their solutions. All the infrastructure and technology in the stadium was put into place within 9 months.
In the enviable position of equipping a glamorous stadium with state-of-the-art technology, the team CIO, went about networking 3100 flat-screen TVs, 884 wireless access points, 655 point of sale terminals and 185 IP security cameras. The stadium uses 250 miles of fiber optic cable, 6 million feet of copper wiring and has 70 wiring closets.
