CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

THE CROWN IN SCHÖNBRUNN PALACE’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Schönbrunn Palace is one of the main attractions in Vienna, Austria and is visited by millions of people every year. But the imperial history is not enough, as the tourism sector needs to change over time, which means going through a digital transformation. This is why IT opted for VMware for its CUSTOMER SCHLOSS SCHÖNBRUNN KULTUR- UND virtualization project. This facilitates the daily management of the BETRIEBSGESELLSCHAFT infrastructure not only at Schönbrunn Palace, but locations at

MANAGEMENT Hofburg, the Imperial Furniture Collection, and two palaces at MAG. KLAUS PANHOLZER Marchfeld. The strategic approach ‘administration has to be easy’

WEB SITE is constantly developed with the Software Defi ned network. WWW.SCHOENBRUNN.AT/EN/ Therefore IT assures reliable operation and management fl ow of its visitors. INDUSTRY TOURISM #1 tourist attraction in Austria LOCATION With growing numbers of visitors every year, Schönbrunn Palace is the main VIENNA, AUSTRIA attraction from Austria’s imperial past, a memorial to the centuries of the KEY CHALLENGES Habsburg Empire. The magnifi cent palace is crucial for Vienna as a top tourist • Austria’s number one tourist destination for city trips. The former summer residence of the imperial family is attraction is open on 365 days a ‘must see’ for tourists, but also a popular attraction for the Viennese, mainly a year, therefore availability of due to the large garden with the Gloriette. systems has to be assured As a UNESCO world heritage site, Schönbrunn Palace has to be preserved in its • A smart IT team with a lot of original form and this is the job of Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und tasks needs an easy-to-manage Betriebsges.m.b.H. It runs and maintains some of Austria’s leading cultural infrastructure heritage sites, those are Schönbrunn Palace, the Imperial Apartments, the Sisi • Centralization of many locations Museum and the Silver Collection at Vienna’s Hofburg, the Imperial Furniture Collection as well as Schloss Hof Estate and Schloss Niederweiden, both IMPACT located in Vienna’s surroundings at Marchfeld. All buildings, as well as their • Virtualization enables easy large parklands, are open for visitors for the purpose of culture, tourism and administration leisure. • Stable infrastructure and quick deployment of new resources The challenge: A small team with many tasks • Users work with the same interface Behind the scenes of Austria’s number one tourist attraction works Michael everywhere Leonardelli, Head of IT, and his team of four. The team supports 160 users and 50 cash desks at all entrances and shops and is responsible for the control and fl ow of visitors, counting 3.8 million at Schönbrunn Palace in 2017 alone. Furthermore IT assures the success of many events at the convention center Apothekertrakt (Apothecaries' Wing), the technical infrastructure of internet services and of course the management of the locations at Hofburg, Imperial Furniture Collection and the palaces at Marchfeld since 2013.

Numerous tasks spread out over many locations, and ongoing operations every day of the year, are the main challenges for this small but e ective IT team.

SCHLOSS SCHÖNBRUNN KULTUR- UND BETRIEBSGESELLSCHAFT | 1 THE CROWN IN SCHÖNBRUNN PALACE’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“VMware is the standard for all Michael Leonardelli had a clear strategy from the beginning: ‘The administration our Office applications and has to be simple’. The second criteria is a stable infrastructure, which works reliably in times of high visitor numbers like in summer or on weekends. cash desks. The infrastructure Following the integration of the palaces at Marchfeld, the aim was to achieve is stable, secure and provides centralized administration. Therefore, the heterogenous landscapes were reliability.” standardized. From now on employees at Schloss Hof Estate work through

MICHAEL LEONARDELLI leased lines on virtual machines which are located in Schönbrunn allowing users CIO to work with their normal desktops at every location. SCHLOSS SCHÖNBRUNN KULTUR- UND BETRIEBSGESELLSCHAFT Action: Virtualization from the beginning Over fi fteen years ago, Leonardelli started to rely on the virtualization of servers, and later, the desktops too. This makes him an early adoptor of VMWARE FOOTPRINT VMware. Further expansion of the VMware infrastructure followed, with new • VMware vSphere 6.5 useful modules to make administration more e cient, and which assure the • VMware Horizon robustness of the applications 365 days a year. • VMware NSX Data Center Support for the IT infrastructure comes from VMware Partner Bechtle in Austria, a partnership that has lasted for many years. Bechtle employees know PARTNER the infrastructure very well, they consult regarding investment protection and help is available if additional resources are needed. The team from Schönbrunn relies on external partners who bring in their specialist skills.

Currently there are three VMware vSphere 6.5 clusters in operation, two at Schönbrunn Palace and one at Schloss Hof Estate. The platform ensures availability, performance and e ciency with its integrated management Hypervisor. With regard to simplicity just three types of machines were defi ned, development, test and production. Updates or batches can be centrally uploaded and rolled-out over night.

85% of the desktops are Thin Client. VMware Horizon View is a modern architecture that provides automated deployment of virtual desktops within seconds.

As a logical consequence the next installation was the Software Defi ned Datacenter with VMware NSX Data Center. With its help, a new virtual network with all logical components like switches, router, fi rewalls and load balancing can be set up in just a couple of minutes. NSX Data Center integrates security functions directly into the vSphere hypervisor. Micro-segmentation enabled by NSX Data Center's distributed fi rewall allows security policy to be set at the workload level and follow the workload throughout its lifecycle, regardless of location.

At fi rst NSX Data Center was used in the virtual desktop environment with Trend Micro Security. If a threat like a virus or malware is detected, the network is locked through NSX Data Center. Leonardelli explains: ‘If the a ected virtual desktop is taken from the network, it stops existing and nothing can go wrong anymore. The user stands in front of a black screen, logs in again and immediately receives a new cloned desktop.’

Recently, NSX Data Center has also been deployed in the server area, where the IT team of Schönbrunn, together with Bechtle, is designing the rules accordingly.

Impact: Who remains true to its core competence, is convincing ‘VMware is the standard for all our O ce applications and cash desks. The infrastructure is stable, secure and provides reliability,’ says Michael Leonardelli. The impact of any infrastructure downtime would be felt both internally and

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY | 2 THE CROWN IN SCHÖNBRUNN PALACE’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“VMware stands with its externally, as visitors want to purchase tickets every day and events at the core competence, which is Apothekertrakt (Apothecaries' Wing) must proceed without fail. providing services in a virtual Thanks to automated deployment of desktops, IT does not need to provide a stand-by service on weekends because if one of the workstations fails, an environment remaining employee at the cash desk can immediately start the next one themselves e.g. credible and reliable.” they access the Thin Clients already deployed in the background.

MICHAEL LEONARDELLI The internal customers do not recognize how seamlessly and reliably VMware CIO SCHLOSS SCHÖNBRUNN KULTUR- UND manages the infrastructure in the background. But when switching from one BETRIEBSGESELLSCHAFT location to another it is clearly recognizable, because the virtual clients are fl exible regarding the location. Leonardelli explains: ‘Wherever someone is, they have their usual desktop. And every task can continue where it was stopped.’ Of course, this works from at home or a hotel room as well.

Michael Leonardelli has worked with VMware for some time and has lots of reasons to do so. There is a wide spectrum of solutions available today although it remains faithful to its core competence. ‘VMware stands with its core competence, which is providing services in a virtual environment remaining credible and reliable,’ says Leonardelli. Unlike other providers who try to sell over-the-top concepts, VMware has the know-how and individual components fi t together perfectly.

Looking ahead: Ready for modern digital services The new management at Schloß Schönbrunn Betriebsgesellschaft is opting for a digital strategy, which should manifest itself externally and internally through the web presence and modern services. IT’s task is to be ready for these challenges and evaluate solutions as there are many hypothetical statements out there, but what counts is the ratio of cost and benefi t.

A crucial point for Leonardelli is the topic of data security, also keeping in mind the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). In the future, processes such as human resources will be digitized.

The team relies on software defi ned infrastructure for the further development of IT, because the concept proved to be successful.

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