Crystal Cruises, an ocean cruising
companies, is using an accelerator appliance to boost internet
speeds over satellite connections to retain customers, boost its
reputation among the travelling cognoscenti, and save
money.
Bjorn Andersson, manager of shipboard and network operations for
Crystal Cruises, spoke to Computer Weekly about the problems it
faced.
Computer Weekly: What was the project?
Andersson: We installed F5's BIG-IP Web Accelerator 4500 to
enable global high-speed internet access on our fleet of ships.
Installation began in July 2007 and was completed at the end of
August 2007.
What is the hardware and software
environment?
Andersson: On board ship, we use Dell desktops with
Windows Vista OS. These connected via radio to our mobile
Wi-Fi/phone system, which is provided by SeaMobile. Our satellite
service provider is MTN. We currently pay for a guaranteed 512kb/s
connection, but they let us spike up to 3mbit per ship if available
on the satellite serving that region.
What payback period or cost avoidance do you expect to
achieve?
Andersson: 128k of bandwidth over our satellite feed costs
£12,000 per month per ship. If F5 delivers only what they
guaranteed, the project will pay for itself in a month.
What return on their investment do you
expect?
Andersson: We expect to maintain the same revenues but deliver a
superior experience to our guests. However, we are also finding
that some guests simply will not book a luxury cruise unless they
can access the internet 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Because we
specialise in exotic destinations, as far away as the Antarctic,
you can imagine it is unlikely we could get an engineer to fix any
connectivity problems amongst the penguins.
On a few occasions, IT departments of large multinational
organisations have contacted me when a senior executive and their
family is due to travel with us. They needed to check if our
systems were compatible with their laptop or PDA. If we could not
absolutely guarantee 100% connectivity, they would have to cancel
their booking. The only way Crystal Cruises can keep doing business
with this kind of profile of passenger is to keep them connected,
no matter what. This is becoming increasingly important for us, so
providing immediate high speed web access is a no-brainer.
How will it change your business processes?
Andersson: It is crucial that we do not have to install anything
on board ship so everything is located in our Los Angeles
datacentre. If something breaks when we are at sea, thanks to Web
Accelerator, we are able to maintain performance.
In our industry particularly, everyone is competing to provide
the most luxurious amenities. Recently, a cruise critic (Conde Nast
Traveller) said that Crystal Cruises' internet is the fastest they
have ever experienced, and we are getting similar feedback from the
guests.
Why did you choose this particular system?
Andersson: "We asked CDW, our technology partner, to find a
system that makes the internet go faster while on a ship over
satellite. They suggested F5's BIG-IP Web Accelerator. We said that
if F5 could guarantee a 50% upturn in performance, we would buy it,
and only on that condition. We plugged it in and F5 delivered four
times what they promised.
Who else did you consider?
Andersson: We also considered
Microsoft's Internet Acceleration Server, conventional proxies
and a Cisco router. In the end we did actually implement Cisco for
part of the overall installation. The problem we faced, however,
was latency from these systems. In the past, we just added more
bandwidth, but that was like having a big engine with a small
transmission.
How will it fit into you existing systems?
Andersson: We just plugged Web Accelerator straight into our
current network, set our internet accounting appliance, Colubris,
which manages our user profiles, and routed traffic
automatically.
What problems did you face or anticipate in implementing
the project?
Andersson: On land, getting access to the internet is like
making sure your kitchen taps at home run with water. But on the
open ocean, I was not confident initially because we have tried so
many times. All of the other suppliers said they could do it, but
in the end they did not deliver. Latency was always a major hurdle,
and I never thought F5 could get around that.
What was the result?
Andersson: We tested the system by placing two laptops side by
side on deck. One connected via Web Accelerator and the other
without and monitored the spiking averages and connectivity from
ship-to-ship and from ship-to-shore. I recorded the time it took
for each page to load and I just could not stop laughing. Web pages
on the accelerated laptop popped up just like you were at home.