Donau Touristik customer story

Donau Touristik – Erhöht mit neuer, zuverlässiger IT an Bord ihres Flusskreuzfahrschiffs MS Primadonna die Servicequalität für die Kunden.

Luxus auf dem Fluss – nicht weniger als das verspricht die MS Primadonna. Das Komfort-Kreuzfahrtschiff, das im Auftrag der Donau Touristik das gesamte Jahr hindurch auf der Donau verkehrt, ist ein schwimmendes Vier-Sterne-Superior-Hotel. Mit an Bord: ein eigenes, kleines Rechenzentrum. Und das wurde nun modernisiert. Mit einer hyperkonvergenten und hochautomatisierten IT-Plattform, die dank höchster Ausfallsicherheit gleichzeitig höchste Servicequalität für die Gäste verspricht.

Project details.

Services

Server & Storage

Industry

Trade / Service

Manufacturer

HPE Enterprise

Company size

< 250 employees

Starting point.

Panoramic restaurant, spa area with indoor whirlpool, massage room—reading the description of the MS Primadonna you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a luxury hotel. The only difference being that this hotel floats. On their holidays, customers want to have extraordinary experiences, unforgettable moments and an unparalleled sense of well-being, but best-laid plans can be scuppered when the IT can’t keep up once the ship has set sail. Booking systems, ERP, GPS, electronic access cards to the cabins and on-board Wi-Fi all rely on seamless connectivity to powerful and reliable servers as well as databases and applications. And that’s exactly where things had started to go wrong. The old servers were showing their age as they approached the end of their lifecycles and there were ever-more disruptions as the systems struggled to cope with power fluctuations particularly when switching between land-based and sea-based supplies.

Solution.

Bechtle recommended HPE SimpliVity. “HPE SimpliVity’s leading technologies and simple, automated management was perfect the fit for the MS Primadonna and its rather limited space,” says Julia Stückerjürgen, Account Manager, Bechtle direct.

Business benefits.

The HPE new hyperconverged infrastructure consists of two HPE SimpliVity nodes built on HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 servers. This infrastructure meets the floating hotel’s requirements as it offers artificial intelligence, a compact form factor and highly-automated self management including smart backup architecture, automatic troubleshooting and predictive analyses. The system fits seamlessly and easily into Donau Touristik’s existing virtualised server infrastructure, which was completely overhauled one year previously. For additional stability, marine-standard components for power supply and cooling were also installed in the on-board server room.

All the required components were prepared on dry land, configured and tested multiple times before being installed on the ship in February 2023.

Lab-based tests demonstrated that when one node fails, the systems switch over to ensure everything stays online. It was a huge relief to know that we can rely on our on-board IT, It has given us the freedom to think about how we can further optimise the cruise experience with new services and offers.

Simone Strasser

Head of IT, Donau Touristik