//08 UPDATEUnify builds on rich legacy //20 COLUMN

The ‘Slow and Low’ tempo of today’s attacks

//34 ANALYSISThe cloud

computing stack revisited

A N I T PT E C H N O L O GYP U B L I C AT I O N

DECEMBER 2015VOLUME 21

ISSUE 12

INSIGHTWIRELESS AC WAVE 2 IS HERE//30

Download the free NME app and be the fi rst to read the latest issue on your mobile devices.

RADISSON BLU REVAMPS WIRELESS

INFRASTRUCTURE WITH LATEST

TECHNOLOGY, ENSURING FAST AND

FREE WI-FI FOR GUESTS

ALL ACCESS

// CONTENTS / DECEMBER 2015

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Volume 21 Issue 12

December 2015

24//Case Study> All Access Radisson Blu Hotel in Dubai Media City revamps wireless infrastructure

with latest technology, ensuring fast and free Wi-Fi for guests

30//Insight> Need for Speed11 AC Wave 2 heralds new era in faster wireless connections as sheer con-nectivity demands pushes the industry to innovate

34//Analysis> Stacking upMEA gets acquainted with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) as cloud catches on

We recognised

we had a coverage issue, which would be solved by upgrading our APs.”

Rushdy Mubarak, IT manager, Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Media City.

24

38//Security> RSA Conference 2015, Abu DhabiInfosec professionals meet at Inaugural RSA Conference in Abu Dhabi to keep track of rapid changes in the security industry

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// W W W.ITP.NET /// 24 / NET WORK MIDDLE EAST / DECEMBER 2015 /

Mubarak: The typical visitor to Dubai Media City/Internet City is more tech savvy than average.

Radisson Blu Hotel Dubai Media City revamps wireless infrastructure with latest technology, ensuring fast and free Wi-Fi for guests.

Case study

All Access

// CASE STUDY / RADISSON BLU HOTEL

// DECEMBER 2015 / NET WORK MIDDLE EAST / 25// W W W.ITP.NET /

RADISSON BLU HOTEL

DUBAI MEDIA CITY

CASE STUDY

ObjectiveThe Radisson Blu Hotel

Media City needed

to upgrade wireless

technology to the latest

technology modernising

its Wi-Fi infrastructure

to keep up with custom-

er demand and technol-

ogy advancements.

SolutionThe Radisson Blu

chose Aruba Networks,

deploying its AC access

points in public areas

and the outdoor ter-

races as well as guest

suites. Guest rooms

were fitted with new ‘N’

technology APs, based

on current average

usage and expected

growth for the next five

years.

ResultsGuest feedback

measures the suc-

cess of hotel deploy-

ment. There has been

marked improvement

in customer feedback

as they benefit from the

improved coverage with

scores from feedback

site Medallia rise from

an average of 7/10 to an

average of 9.

The Radisson Blu Hotel Media City had outgrown its wireless technol-ogy by the begin-

ning of this year, and em-barked on modernising its Wi-Fi infrastructure with the latest in wireless technology.

The hotel chose Aruba Networks, a trusted vendor among the hotel’s IT per-sonnel, as well as being an approved provider by head-quarters. “We had a different vendor with our previous de-ployment that catered for the needs at that time. However, we needed to deploy newer technology and our previous vendor lacked the latest AC wireless technology,” says Rushdy Mubarak, IT man-ager at Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Media City.

Mubarak says when it came to this deployment, only the latest would do. “We figured since we were investing in something new, we should opt for technology that should serve us for the next five years at least.”

Mubarak observes that visitors to Dubai have high expectations when they visit this modern city. Accord-ingly, hotels like the Radisson Blu have to fulfil these expec-tations. Moreover, Mubarak notes, the typical visitor to the Media City/Internet City enclave of Dubai where the hotel is based is generally

tech savvy and their technol-ogy demands are higher than the average guest.

The IT team at Radisson Blu considered guest feed-back from previous years, collating guest complains over slow internet connec-tions and sought to identify a solution. “We wanted to find out whether this was a connection issue or a cover-age one,” Mubarak says. “We recognised we had a coverage issue, which could be solved by upgrading the APs infra-structure,” he adds.

When the hotel started operations in 2005, the man-agement deployed Wireless G technology which was the standard then. Five years lat-er in 2015, the hotel changed to ‘N’ and this year, another five years down the line, the Radisson Blu has switched to the latest ‘AC’ technology.

EMW Systems were the system integrators, extend-ing a long running relation-ship between the hotel and EMW. “In my experience, Aruba partners are very good at what they do and this time was no different with a gen-erally flawless implementa-tion,” Mubarak says. “EMW has become a real partner for us as we have been working with them for a long time, with excellent result. For all new projects, we consider EMW first,” Mubarak adds.

The deployment began

We recognised we had a cover-age issue, which could be solved

by upgrading the APs infrastructure.”Rushdy Mubarak, IT manager at Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Media City.

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Meeting rooms now have fast wireless access for conference goers, thanks to AC access points

We figured since we were investing in something new, we

should opt for technology that should serve us for the next five years at least.”

with a site survey to find out on which places required what kind of installation. The result of the site survey was the recognition that the meeting rooms, public areas and the outdoor areas and the suites required AC tech-nology. For the guest rooms, the hotel picked ‘N’ technol-ogy, based on current average usage and expected growth for the next five years, says Mubarak. An ‘N’ technology AP can handle up to 30 de-vices, so these were deemed sufficient for guest rooms.

Aruba AP-275AC were deployed in the terraces as these are capable of offer-ing wide coverage and are certified for usage outdoors. Aruba AP-225AC and 205AC access points were installed in meeting rooms, depend-ing on room size. All the 241 guest rooms were fitted with

AP-103H APs which are spe-cially designed for the hospi-tality sector, with AP-205AC for the suites.

The hotel also deployed Aruba controllers, two of them for redundancy’s sake. Mubarak says the IT team also selected licenses with future growth in mind in case the hotel requires to add ac-cess points later on.

The hotel began its over-haul of its infrastructure last year with the core network making sure the network was ready for the wireless deployment that was to fol-low soon after, Mubarak re-veals. The deployment of the

wireless infrastructure was planned in January but was implemented between June and July to take advantage of the summer tourist off sea-son in the UAE.

That said, the hotel was still operational during the deployment, posing a par-ticular challenge to the IT team in ensuring guests were not inconvenienced. Addi-tionally, Mubarak says, the team had to work with two different vendors, Aruba Networks, plus the old sys-tem already in place.

The previous structure had access points in alterna-tive rooms. In contrast, the current deployment saw APs in each room to provide bet-ter coverage. This ensures that even if an AP in one room failed, the APs in the other two adjacent rooms would be able to provide ad-equate cover, says Mubarak.

From a logistics point of view, some floors had to be blocked off at a time to allow for installations. Public ar-eas were worked on at night. Initially, EMW engineers de-ployed new APs in the rooms that did not have them previ-ously and then deactivated the old ones in the rooms that had them. This ensured that guests already connect-ed would not be disconnect, Mubarak says. The old and the new systems had to run parallel during this imple-mentation stage, he adds.

THE CLIENT

The Radisson Blu

Hotel, Dubai Media City

offers 246 rooms and

suites at the centre of

the bustling Media City/

Internet City area of

Dubai. On-site dining

provides guests with

numerous options at

several restaurants, bars

and lounges as well as

spa treatment at Senso

Wellness Centre. The

hotel’s meeting space

comprises 12 rooms,

spanning 582 square

meters. As part of the

E@syConnect Service

concept, Radisson Blu

hotels offer high-speed

and/or wireless Internet

access free of charge

for all guests throughout

the hotel.

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Outdoor-grade AC access points have been deployed at the terraces to cater for the needs of guests.

Mubarak says the de-ployment process in fact took a bit longer-about three months-primarily because the team was mindful of the guest experience.

From a technical per-spective, the deployment was seamless, Mubarak says, be-cause the Aruba system has been designed specifically to integrate and not to interfere with existing setups.

The IT team and EMW engineers segregated the net-work into two, separated at the VLAN. The old APs were in a separate VLAN, with the new one in a different one and together with all the new servers. Mubarak says this allowed the two systems run parallel, ensuring no con-flicts between the two. A test lab was set up in the IT office to make sure the system per-formed as required.

Much of the networking infrastructure was already in place, so minimal ripping and replacing was required. Some cabling was required for the meeting rooms, as the previous set up had the APs in the corridors. The new arrangement called for APs inside the meeting rooms to improve coverage. EMW Systems also recommended a few APs to be shifted from one location to another dur-ing the site survey, with the requisite cabling put in place.

The rest of the installa-tions were basically plug and play, Mubarak says, with the networking and the ports already in place in the guest rooms. All was required in this regard was to plug the AP into the walls. “There were changes from the previ-

ARUBA 270 SERIES OUTDOOR ACCESS POINTS270 series outdoor wireless access points deliver gigabit Wi-Fi performance to 802.11ac

mobile devices under any weather conditions. The 270 series also enables 802.11n clients

to operate three-times faster at greater distances. The 270 series APs are designed to

withstand exposure to high and low temperatures, moisture and precipitation, and fully

sealed to keep out airborne contaminants. With a maximum data rate of 1.3 Gbps in the

5-GHz band and 600 Mbps in the 2.4-GHz band, 270 series outdoor APs supports concur-

rent dual-radio operation at speeds that exceed Fast Ethernet.

ARUBA 220 SERIES ACCESS POINTSMultifunctional 220 series wireless APs deliver gigabit Wi-Fi performance to 802.11ac

mobile devices. Integrated Aruba ClientMatch technology ensures consistently high

performance across the WLAN infrastructure. With a maximum data rate of 1.3 Gbps in the

5-GHz band and 600 Mbps in the 2.4-GHz band, 220 series APs are three-times faster

than 802.11n APs and provide performance similar to a wired connection.

ARUBA 200 SERIES ACCESS POINTSMultifunctional and affordable Aruba 200 series 802.11ac wireless APs maximize mobile

device performance in medium-density enterprise Wi-Fi environments. These compact

and cost-effective dual-radio APs deliver wireless data rates of up to 867 Mbps to 5-GHz

devices with 802.11ac technology leveraging two spatial MIMO streams while simultane-

ously supporting 2.4-GHz 802.11n clients with data rates of up to 300 Mbps.

ARUBA 103 SERIES ACCESS POINTSAffordable Aruba 103 series wireless access points (APs) are suitable for medium-density

Wi-Fi environments while minimizing interference from cellular networks. These compact

and cost-effective APs deliver wireless data rates up to 300 Mbps per radio employ-

ing 802.11n technology with two spatial MIMO streams. The AP-103 and Instant IAP-103

models feature a 2.4-GHz and a 5-GHz radio, each with 2x2:2 MIMO and two integrated

dual-band omni-directional downtilt antennas

KIT LIST

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ous white colour of the APs to black to match the décor we wanted,” Mubarak says.

Mubarak says the current bandwidth from the service provider is sufficient for cur-rent needs. “We have plans to upgrade bandwidth next year as well as internet demand is always rising,” he adds.

Unlike many other estab-lishments, unlimited Inter-net is available to all guests for free, says Mubarak.

Radisson Blu Hotel Dubai Media City offers three types of internet ac-cess, Mubarak explains. One is pass-by access for F&B outlets. Diners are provided with vouchers either for

survey on their experience with us. We also monitor sites such as TripAdvisor and social media,” he adds.

Mubarak says since the deployment, there has been marked improvement in guest feedback as they ben-efit from the improved wire-less coverage.

The ROI for an establish-ment such as the Radisson Blu Hotel is measured in cus-tomer satisfaction with ser-vices on offer, says Mubarak. “We have seen our scores

through Medallia rise from an average of 7/10 to around 9,” Mubarak adds.

Management and moni-toring of the wireless system is much easier today than it was, says Mubarak. “The hotel has deployed AirWave, a solution from Aruba that does the monitoring and of-fers more features than the controller alone could pro-vide. The system itself is much more user friendly as it works on a web interface,” Mubarak says.

BUSINESS BENEFIT

• Guests of Radisson Blu Media City are now free to

enjoy fast Wi-Fi access thanks to fast AC technology,

up to three times faster than the previous N technology.

• APs in every room as opposed to every other room

means each guest is guaranteed fast connections.

• Extension of fast Wi-Fi access to diners in F&B estab-

lishments including tow terraces with deployment of

AC outdoor APs.

• Rising scores on hospitality sites from customers satis-

fied with their internet experience at the hotel.

THE VENDOR

Aruba Networks

is a networking vendor

selling enterprise

wireless LAN and

edge access network-

ing equipment. The

company, founded in

2002, today has over

1,200 employees and

is headquartered in

Sunnyvale, California.

Aruba’s core products

are access points (APs),

mobility controllers, and

network management

software through their

Airwave Management

Platform product. On

May 19, 2015, HP com-

pleted the acquisition

of Aruba Networks and

is now wholly owned

by HP and has been

combined into the HP

Networking business

within HP’s Enterprise

Group organisation.

one hour or 24 hours. Then there’s connection for meet-ing rooms depending on the period of conferences, with participants provided single authentication access from the beginning till the end of the meeting. For guests, connecting is through their room number and password, with a single authentication access from the time they ar-rive till they leave.

Swisscom is the High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) service provider for the hotel, powering Wi-Fi connections while proving real time active view of the network to the IT manage-ment team.

The greatest concern for the hotel, Mubarak says, is guest feedback. “Our stand-ard procedure is that when-ever a guest checks out, we send out a survey to them through customer feedback site Medallia. We then evalu-ate guest feedback from this

Mubarak says the hotel monitors guest feedback closely. The modern hotel required a wireless infrastructure to match.