Cambrils Park Resort is a complex opened 25 years ago with the aim of becoming a reference destination to enjoy the summer with the family. In its recent digital transformation process, it has carried out an optimization of its storage environment with NetApp, with the main objective of guaranteeing the availability of its systems and the continuity of the services offered in its complex.
Both have faced an ambitious technological challenge in which the data infrastructures have to guarantee the availability of services to some 800 workers, in addition to the users from all installations in the group, concurrently.
To achieve this, NetApp’s MetroCluster technology has been the selected option, offering a fully replicated environment between the two CPDs separated by 1.5 kilometers, where the resort’s services rest. Thanks to this, the company’s data is replicated synchronously between both CPD rooms. About this process, we have had the opportunity to speak with Salvador GarroCIO of Cambrils Park Resort.
[MCPRO] How was the storage infrastructure that Cambrils Park Resort had before starting its digital transformation process with NetApp? What were the main needs you had to cover?
[Salvador Garró] It was a traditional block storage infrastructure, connected by block protocols. In contrast, the NetApp storage infrastructure is a unified cabinet that serves both block and file (NAS), also providing a first level of backup, tools to make efficient use of storage space and guarantee availability.
Cambrils Park Resort is part of the Grup Blasi, to which the Camping & Resort Sangulí Salou and the Futbol Salou Sport Center also belong. These three companies are interconnected and share infrastructure, resources and services. This represented a great challenge and the need for a technological solution that guarantees the availability of services to the more than 8,000 families that visit the complex every summer, as well as the 800 workers who are part of the staff.
[MCPRO] Being such a large space and in such a complex structure, what were the main challenges that the IT provider had to overcome?
[Salvador Garró] The main challenges that ICOT has faced as a technological partner have been, on the one hand, to guarantee the availability of the service and its replication at all times, since there are many services that are based on the virtualization structure and, therefore, in storage systems.
The other great challenge of this project has been to ensure and improve the performance of the infrastructure itself. All the corporate needs of the resort, such as the databases or the search engine, among others, as well as the different services that they offer to their clients in person and also online, depend on the capacity of said infrastructure.
[MCPRO] What leads Cambrils Park to opt for the solution proposed by NetApp? What are the most valued features of a product like MetroCluster?
[Salvador Garró] Due to the characteristics of the Resort’s activity, a highly available and replicated environment is needed to guarantee the continuity of the service, not only in contingency situations, such as system crashes, server or CPD disconnections, but also in scheduled stops such as it may be installing updates.
In this sense, the MetroCluster solution allows Cambrils Park to have 2 CPD rooms separated by more than 1.5 km. The company’s data is synchronously replicated between both CPD rooms, so that the resort can do without any of them without affecting the availability of the service.
By having computation and storage in both CPD rooms, it is possible not to depend on either of them, since the workloads that are normally balanced can be directed to one of the two and restored after the resolution of the incident or the stoppage scheduled.
Another element to highlight in this solution is the automation capacity it allows in disaster recovery environments. A guaranteed synchronous copy is performed so that there is no data loss.
[MCPRO] Once it is launched, what are the main advantages of the installed solution? How do you improve the operations of the systems department?
[Salvador Garró] Evidently the main advantage has been to be able to ensure the availability of the systems and, therefore, the proper functioning of all the services offered by the Resort to its clients.
Among the results obtained, we highlight the system restoration time. If there was a drop in the CPD before, we needed between 4 and 5 hours to restore the service. Right now, this process is instant. Also, if before we could reset the system to 70% – 80%, now it is 100%.
[MCPRO] What role has the solution played in facilitating teleworking during the health crisis caused by COVID-19?
[Salvador Garró] The solution chosen by Cambrils Park Resort and implemented by ICOT has been key in this regard. The arrival of the pandemic brought with it the challenge of moving work to the homes of our employees.
Thanks to deduplication technology, it has been possible to enable remote work in just a few minutes, without affecting the performance of the infrastructure. Deduplication intelligently manages stored information, so that with the increase in employees working from home, virtual remote desktops have been able to make optimal use of resources and applications.
