Singapore's luxury hotel improves operational efficiency and lowers power and cooling costs by 30 percent with IBM BladeCenter and Storage Solutions
Singapore, 23 April 2009 - IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, a six-star luxury hotel in Singapore, has replaced its aging data center computing infrastructure, which was powered by HP, with IBM servers and storage in a bid to reduce operation costs and increase efficiency.
The move to IBM technology has provided the Hotel with increased flexibility in their data center for deploying applications, increased reliability and decreased risk from power outages, reduced energy-related costs and enhanced economic competitiveness. The new infrastructure has reduced the Hotel's data center server footprint by 75 percent, helping to save on facilities space and cabling. With fewer systems to manage and update, the Hotel's system management is streamlined and there are savings on labour costs. Adding to that, the drop of at least 30 percent in the power and cooling costs of its data centers is helping Fullerton Hotel make its mark in going green and caring for the environment.
Remodelled from a 1928 Palladian-style building, the Fullerton Hotel Singapore is a landmark luxury property in the heart of Singapore's Central Business District. The hotel views technology as an important means of improving business processes and enhancing the positive experience of its guests during their stay. Leading edge technology will enable the staff to enhance efficiency and better service to their guests, while having a positive effect on the environment and running a more cost-effective operation.
Increased Reliability and Flexibility
To bring its guest service and operation capabilities to new heights, the Fullerton needed to replace its aging computing infrastructure with a more robust, highly scalable, reliable and energy-efficient infrastructure to support their new business intelligence, human resources and inventory management applications.
With help from IBM and IBM's Premier Business Partner, Getronics, the Fullerton integrated and implemented the IBM BladeCenter chassis which houses 12 IBM HS21 blade servers and an IBM DS4700 disk storage system. The Hotel's core mission-critical applications are now running off a consolidated storage area network (SAN) powered by an IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller on the disk storage system.
The scalability of the IBM BladeCenter and storage servers will enable the Fullerton to meet increasing business needs, while the move to a SAN architecture will allow the Hotel to increase its total storage capacity without disruption. The new and improved infrastructure has eliminated a vast amount of routine, low-value administration for The Fullerton Hotel Singapore. The staff can now focus on higher-value work such as supporting business users and developing new services.
"The new IBM systems are more reliable and have increased capacities to meet our needs. Our migration to the IBM BladeCenter and System Storage gives us the flexibility we need to simplify our IT, reduce unnecessary costs, and yet provides us the platform to explore smarter and innovative new customer service strategies," said Mr. Jason Lee, MIS Manager, The Fullerton Hotel Singapore. "The data center now uses 75 percent less floor space and we have seen the energy consumption to go down as well. The reduction in the power and cooling costs of the center should be at least 30 percent."
IBM Blades and Storage - The Better Choice
IBM Blade server technology is proven to assist organisations in driving down operating and maintenance expenses, allowing for lower total cost of ownership, reduced data center space requirements, lower energy consumption, and streamlined data center management. The servers are therefore especially well suited to the hospitality industry, where tight budgets and limited staffing are often the norm. As an additional benefit to the Hotel, the highly reliable IBM BladeCenter servers offer proven open, easy and 'green' technology that demands less energy and is easier and less costly to cool than other alternatives.
IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) also gives Fullerton Hotel an effective way to manage and upgrade its storage. The biggest advantage has been the reduction in downtime to manage and upgrade storage. With the new single consolidated storage system in placed, the Hotel is seeing more overall reliability than in the past, in terms of getting backups done consistently and effectively every day. Back-ups can now be completed within four hours - just 20 percent of the time it used to take.
"Accelerating the adoption of energy-smart solutions requires many things: collaboration, shared innovation, and a commitment to transforming the way power is delivered, managed, and used. IBM is seeing clients go green by coupling the energy efficient design of the IBM BladeCenter with virtualisation technology. Our clients have seen increased savings, improved operational efficiencies and the reduction in the use of energy and floor space," said Cheah Saw Pheng, Country Manager, IBM Systems & Technology Group, Singapore. "IBM's long history and expertise with data center implementations have enabled us to create a solution that helps the Fullerton save energy and ensure efficient server and storage performance. We are delighted to be working with the Fullerton to help them optimise and transform their IT operations."
The new IBM Blades and Storage solutions have helped The Fullerton Hotel Singapore build a smarter, secure, resilient and dynamic infrastructure that aligns its world-renowned hotel's business and IT to reduce cost, manage risk, improve service, enhance flexibility and meet their green agenda.