Royal Caribbean Cruise Line - Insight

SOLUTION AT A GLANCE
Company
Royal Caribbean International
Industry
Global Recreational Cruising
Challenge
Integrate and deploy a comprehensive unified
communications network and all associated IT
infrastructure for the world’s largest cruise ship.
Solution
Build a custom lab to stage, configure, test
and ship the communications network system,
simultaneously matched by driving thousands of
IT infrastructure components through Insight’s
existing integration facility.
Leverage Insight best practices in project
management, client communications, network
infrastructure, integration services, supplier
coordination, comprehensive documentation,
system testing, and warehouse/distribution
services.
Utilize proven project management methodology
and core integration competencies to deploy:
the onboard network, unified communications
system, data center, and thousands of client
nodes. This infrastructure in turn, serves the
ship’s 5,400 passengers, 2,700 state rooms,
nine specialty restaurants, seven ‘neighborhood’
activity zones, and numerous specialty shops
across 16 decks.
ROYAL CARIBBEAN
INTERNATIONAL’S
OASIS OF THE SEAS
Case Study
Royal Caribbean International has long been a household name in the recreational cruising
arena. Famous for its slogan, “The Nation of Why Not,” Royal Caribbean has been in the
vanguard of cruising innovation for some time. With the debut of its new flagship, Oasis of the
Seas, the company has taken oceangoing innovation to new levels—both literally and figuratively.
Towering above the water line at 213 feet high, spanning 1,187 feet in length and weighing
225,282 gross registered tons, Oasis is as long as the Empire State building is high!
Accommodating 5,400 passengers in 2,700 staterooms,Oasis offers seven neighborhoods
including the first-ever park at sea, an 82-foot zip line, beach pool, carousel, high-dive
performances, and the only Tony award-winning Broadway musical at sea, Hairspray.
All of the ship’s amenities and attractions are seamlessly delivered to passengers via an equally
innovative unified communications network powering every aspect of daily operations—from
embarkation to spa reservations, channel surfing in staterooms to ordering entrees, the entire
ship runs on a system that is a technological phenomenon developed expressly for Oasis in
partnership with Cisco and Insight.
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INSIGHT NAVIGATES A NEW NETWORK DEPLOYMENT APPROACH
Like everything else about Oasis, its network and communications core represents innovation
without precedent. Nothing like it has ever powered any cruise ship, certainly nothing on the
scale of Oasis. As plans got under way, it was clear that Royal Caribbean needed to take a
new approach to the building and integration of this massive, unified communications network
infrastructure.
DEDICATED INTEGRATION LAB
While Royal Caribbean maintains an integration facility in Pembroke Park, Florida, near its
home port of Port Everglades, it became clear that additional facilities were required for
the build-out of the Oasis infrastructure because of its extensive power, space and cooling
“ Correct knowledge transfer was vital—those involved at
Insight included sales, procurement, credit, distribution,
integration, field, and project management groups.
Also, we needed to partner with Cisco architects and
engineers, numerous OEM partners, and of course, our
client counterparts. The Insight project management
team served as Royal Caribbean’s single point of contact
in managing Insight’s numerous internal/external
teams… blending consulting, proof-of-concept and
actual build outs in a comprehensive format.”
requirements. However, the cost of building a new facility in both time and monetary terms
proved to be prohibitive. Rather than incurring the multimillion-dollar expense of a new
integration facility, Royal Caribbean chose to partner with Insight. The technology solution
provider’s Integration Lab in Hanover Park, Illinois met Royal’s facility needs and provided the
integration expertise required for the entire infrastructure build-out.
Within the facility complex, Insight built a 3,000-square-foot lab to create dedicated, secure
space for configuring Royal’s network. The space included office space for Royal
personnel, complete with data ports that linked them directly to the company’s network.
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– Tim Campbell, VP Client Solutions, Insight

Once the facility was ready, Insight and Royal Caribbean project management teams developed a
timeline for planning, implementing, testing and ultimately deploying the network and additional
equipment. Timeline accuracy and cooperation were vital to the success of the project; the
Insight and Royal Caribbean teams collaborated closely to ensure milestones were met and
project elements were successfully completed.
BUILDING THE IT INFRASTRUCTURE
In terms of both network infrastructure and unified communications, the project’s scale was
unparalleled: 2,000-plus televisions, 300 interactive digital signs, 900 wireless access points,
1,000 wireless IP phones, and 365 POS devices, all running on the network and each anchored
by an IP address. To support such requirements, the network backbone clearly had to be
exceptionally robust, agile and secure.
Based on the network design and architecture provided by Royal Caribbean, Insight staged and
configured the network infrastructure to provide the required level of onboard functionality.
This included cabling together approximately 50 Cisco chassis switches with 2,500 8-port
cabin switches for a fully converged data network running on 60-plus enclosed HP blade
servers. In addition, the solution included combinations of Lenovo desktops, Panasonic laptops,
Cisco IP phones, handheld POS devices and numerous wireless access points. In total, about
10,000 pieces of equipment were deployed to establish Oasis’ unified communications and
network system. Insight’s strong and established relationships with partners like Cisco truly
facilitated the orchestration and delivery of all moving parts, which in this case, numbered in
the high thousands.
During the system configuration process, the Insight team shadowed Royal Caribbean personnel,
which enabled them to author and compile documentation for every network process and
create a defined roadmap for future deployment. Royal Caribbean also engages with various
third-party contractors that have an onboard presence with proprietary software systems. Insight
coordinated with Royal Caribbean to provide access and security clearance for these multiple
vendors, allowing them to work side by side within the facility. Collaborating closely with its
Royal Caribbean counterparts, the Insight team assisted in the coordination of these diverse
third-party contractors as the system was prepared for testing and delivery.
With a satellite feed and DS-3 connection to Royal Caribbean, Insight assisted in the conduction
of a rigorous User Acceptance Testing analysis to ensure seamless execution, followed by
shipment of all equipment to the shipyard in Turku, Finland. The shipping process included
staging, palletizing and coordinating numerous skids that ultimately were loaded on to six,
40-foot container trucks. The trucks went from Illinois to New Jersey where the material
was loaded onto container ships to transport it across the Atlantic to reach its destination in
southwestern Finland.
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SOLUTIONS AND OUTCOMES
As Oasis made her maiden voyage from the shipyard in December 2009, she
sailed under the auspices of a unified communications systems and network
infrastructure that, in technological terms, are as commanding as her silhouette.
“ Oasis of the Seas represents a new
generation of cruise ship with its
remarkable technological attributes;
partnering with Insight to build the
network and related infrastructure
has been an extraordinary
advantage in making this innovation
a reality”
– Bill Martin, Chief Information Officer,
Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd .
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Today, the Oasis Class includes
sister ship Allure of the Seas,
for which Insight is providing
the same level of comprehensive
technology services deployed for
Oasis.
In addition, the Insight team is
providing scalable technology
solutions for Celebrity Cruises’
newest ship group, the Solstice
Class. Part of the Royal
Caribbean family, Celebrity
focuses on different segments
of the cruise market and is
launching a new vessel—Eclipse—that will join sister ships Equinox and Solstice
already waterborne. Currently under construction in Germany, Eclipse will require
the same level of expertise and collaboration between Insight and Royal Caribbean
that made the Oasis engagement so successful.
Over the course of the contract, a total of five ships’ full IT infrastructure will
be developed, integrated, tested and delivered by Insight. Clearly, the robust,
process-driven solution pioneered with Oasis has both relevance and application
for the remaining four ships under contract. Common to these engagements is
Insight’s ability to scale to each ship’s requirements—whether in terms of the
integration environment, seamlessly functioning as an extended team, or other
operational efficiencies.
The breadth and depth of Insight solutions and services represent an opportunity
for leading technology engagements to be completed on even the most
extraordinary scale. Clearly, the Oasis of the Seas engagement demonstrates
Insight’s ability to successfully navigate such complex requirements.
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reserved. Updated 6.29. 12-13682