Jumeirah Group is aiming to double its hotel portfolio to 42 properties by 2018. To support and sustain its expansion, it is imperative to have a robust and agile IT infrastructure in place that can deliver services with no downtime, and which can scale services quickly when demands peak.
This led to the virtualisation of data centres and the implementation of software-defined technology across Jumeirah’s hotels. The group’s vice president of information technology operations Neil Menezes shares what went on behind the scenes, and how the company has benefited from the eight-month-long upgrade.
THE RATIONAL AND OBJECTIVES
Menezes explains that Jumeirah Group’s IT infrastructure was under pressure and the company had started to out-grow its IT department in its previous form. It needed a quick solution, whereby different systems would integrate seamlessly with each other, without impacting guest experience. To achieve this, the company decided to modernise its data centre and implement a new core network. “The upgrade needed to be done without affecting the guest experience — from providing guests with seamless internet, swift check-in and check-out, online bookings and enabling room service requests.”
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The project started off with something around data centre modernisation. However, it quickly became clear that simply refreshing the hardware would not be enough; Jumeirah also required a solid platform that could be used as a springboard for its services.
“I didn’t want to spend a load of money, especially on very expensive servers. It’s a commodity, I wanted to make sure that I had the right-sized infrastructure that could provide me with the scalability at a good price,” Menezes explains.
THE CONCEPT & INVESTMENT
A key objective was to strike the right balance to ensure the technology complemented the luxury offered to the guests, without being overpowering.
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