Fulham Football Club Implements EMC Storage and VMware

EMC
Corporation announced that Barclays Premier League side Fulham Football
Club has implemented a new security system based on EMC Corp.‘s unified
storage with VMware virtualization and cloud infrastructure technologies,
forming a private cloud environment.

EMC has introduced a wireless IP
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) system on EMC unified storage, working with video
management software provider Genetec: the solution is accessible on mobile
devices, such as Apple iPads, allowing Fulham’s security team to monitor crowd safety and improve stadium security.


Customer Benefits:

• Return on investment: Fulham expects the solution to pay for itself
  within two years of operation, via reductions in operational expenses, savings
  on valuable floor space, and the consolidation of over 36 servers into just
  six.
• Increased agility: Security staff – as well as the Metropolitan Police –
  can access the cameras’ streaming video from anywhere in the world, on a 24/7
  basis, on almost any device.
• Increased efficiency: Storage space and cooling and power requirements
  were substantially reduced by moving Fulham F.C.’s traditional data centre
  infrastructure to a private cloud leveraging EMC unified storage and VMware
  virtualization and cloud infrastructure technologies.
• Simplified management and dual functionality: EMC unified storage allows
  Fulham to run both file and block services from a single solution, all tied
  together with EMC Unisphere storage management software.

Fulham F.C. previously used a
network of six VHS recorders and 27 cameras to observe the many thousands of
visitors to the Craven Cottage ground. Based on a stand-alone storage
infrastructure, this system was costly and difficult to manage and maintain,
each camera required maintenance before every match and video tapes would have
to be manually scanned in the event of a security incident.

Nicolas Pendlebury, Head of IT
Projects at Fulham F. C., said: "We
were incredibly impressed by EMC’s proposal, which presented us with an entire
security package from storage to cameras. In addition, it was based on an
open-architecture model, allowing us to choose best-of-breed products. The
cloud environment is key to the success of the new system, which we estimate
will pay for itself in two years. It has enabled us to increase the agility,
speed and functionality with which the security team can monitor our sites
remotely and safely, and new cameras can be connected to the network at any
time."

The new IP-based CCTV system took
just weeks to implement. The Club now benefits from a security
surveillance system comprising 63 HD cameras at its Craven Cottage stadium and Motspur Park training ground, which operate over
Wi-Fi and within a virtualized storage environment that saves space and money.
The cameras’ resolution is sharp enough to enable security staff to see a
number-plate at 200 feet – with visual acuity that would stand up in the event
of a court case – and the system is both efficient: the cameras
record at a low-definition level until motion-detectors automatically trigger
HD recording. Activation is flagged to the security team, indicating that an
incident is underway, meaning that the staff does not have to monitor all 63
screens simultaneously.

To support the CCTV security
network, EMC has deployed two cloud environments with VMware virtualization and
cloud infrastructure technologies and EMC unified storage. This has enabled
Fulham F.C. to condense its 20 servers previously installed at Motspur Park and
16 servers at Craven Cottage to just 6 servers, resulting in the Club being
able to save vital floor space and lower operational expenses while also
reducing server racks from five to one.

Hosting the storage system in a
cloud environment, the security team can access surveillance
footage from any cameras they choose on almost any mobile device, using an
application developed by Genetec. This allows the security team to
constantly review the security of the stadium and training ground, both on-site
and off-site, enabling them to find, retrieve, and replay incidents within
minutes.

CCTV blackouts, due to server
failures, are an unacceptable risk to spectator safety at Fulham F.C. The
virtualized environment means that, should one of the servers fail, the service
is automatically transferred to available capacity elsewhere, minimizing any
risk to security. By using VMware vSphere 4.1 and VMware vCenter Server to
intelligently manage their virtualised storage, Fulham F.C.’s IT team is also
able ensure its storage infrastructure is always running at optimum capacity.