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Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is the world's second-largest cruise line operator, employing more than 60,000 people across six different cruise lines. The company operates a total of 41 ships, which call on some 460 destinations worldwide.

KEEPING OPERATIONS AFLOAT
Approximately five million people cruise with Royal Caribbean each year, and technology plays a critical role in delivering an exceptional experience. Jeanine Graham-Bellamy, Director of Technology at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., says: "Our goal is to provide an incredible cruise experience, and to achieve that while maintaining profitability, we have to pay attention to details such as what our guests like to do, and how we can better cater to their needs."

Each of the company's ships is like a small city, and there are a huge number of shipboard systems that depend on IT to function properly - from in-room entertainment to excursion booking. On top of that, there are critical onshore systems including reservations and marketing applications.

Royal Caribbean has ambitious plans to increase its data storage capacity by around 3.5 percent annually through 2017. As the company expands its operations, the need for reliable IT operations - available 24/7 - becomes even more critical. "We have to deal with ever-increasing volumes of customer and operational information, so data storage is a critical area for us," notes Leonardo Irastorza, Enterprise SAN and Storage Manager at Royal Caribbean.

VIRTUALISING STORAGE
Royal Caribbean deployed IBM System Storage DS8870 arrays for its ERP systems and IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) to virtualise different tiers of storage like IBM XIV Storage System, IBM Storwize V7000 and IBM FlashSystem into a single flexible resource with one management interface. The company also deployed seven IBM XIV Storage Systems to provide high-performance storage for a virtualised server landscape.

Jorge Gonzalez, Enterprise Storage Architect at Royal Caribbean Cruises, states, "Our VMs run extremely well on the XIV. If a drive fails, the XIV just fixes itself. Overall, IBM System Storage solutions have helped us grow from 17 TB to over 2.5 PB of data in a very controlled way. We have just four people managing storage - and that is largely thanks to SAN Volume Controller and IBM XIV."

To support a critical data warehouse for marketing, Royal Caribbean deployed an IBM FlashSystem Enterprise Solution comprising two mirrored IBM FlashSystem 820 arrays behind SVC. Graham-Bellamy says, "We deal with staggering amounts of information, generating 500 million targeted emails a year. Previously, storage bottlenecks impeded the speed and effectiveness of campaigns and analysis. IBM FlashSystem accelerates the flow of data."

SPEED AND COST SAVINGS
Offering extreme performance in a dense form factor, the FlashSystem 820 helps save space and money, as Irastorza explains: "By moving to IBM FlashSystem, we reclaimed 82U of rack space for the same capacity. We now use only 2U to support some 15 TB of data, which is a 97 percent reduction in space, translating into lower costs - FlashSystem saves us US$77,000 a year in operational expenses."

Providing high performance for analytical processing, FlashSystem also helps IT staff meet business demands. Gonzalez remarks, "Lightning-fast response times with IBM FlashSystem mean that we can quickly get information out to business users, so they can find the answers they need right away."

With IBM storage technology providing a solid base for operations, IT teams can focus on business innovation. "Royal Caribbean is a truly international, 24/7 operation," notes Gonzalez. "We cannot afford even the smallest amount of downtime, and IBM storage technology gives us total reliability."

Irastorza adds, "Because we're no longer in the trenches trying to manage how the data is deployed we can look at the bigger picture and really understand the needs of the business. IBM technology helps Royal Caribbean continue to innovate and deliver an exceptional experience for our guests."
More info: www.ibm.com/storage