Dubai World Trade Centre: One Event, Thousands of Individual Networks

The Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) is an iconic exhibition center, and one of the first major buildings in what is now the world-famous downtown area of Dubai. The DWTC has played a pivotal role in the growth of Dubai as a center of tourism and business since its foundation in 1979. The venue spans 1.3-million square feet – the equivalent of 18 football fields – and is host to more than 500 events and 3 million visitors every year.

With Fabric, DWTC can make quick changes with minimal effort through Fabric by only configuring at the edge layer, without ever needing to touch the core, aggregation or distribution layers – and then undo the changes to prepare for the next event. No other vendor can hyper-segment networks as quickly or securely as Extreme. Other vendors require reconfiguration at the core of the network, which heightens risks such as downtime and security breaches. Extreme is the only vendor that can deploy a single fabric across the data center, campus and branch – to create one network – making it easy to manage and deploy.

DWTC has been an Extreme customer for nearly 10 years since ditching Cisco for a simple, flexible networking vendor with an eye on innovation. Fabric is just one benefit of Extreme’s network solutions. The simplicity of a single network managed through a single platform was a game changer for DWTC. Extreme makes it easy; one network connects everything while one platform manages everything. That means even the most complex of network deployments don’t require highly complex management, meaning the DWTC IT team can focus on important new projects that the business requires, rather than wasting time configuring the network.

Challenges

• Scaling network to meet needs of exhibitors, without overloading the IT team
• Providing secure, resilient connectivity to both critical on-site systems and extending services to exhibitors and vendors during major events
• Multiple networks to manage operational technologies, multicast video, retail and venue environments

Extreme Solutions

• Universal Wired
• ExtremeCloud IQ – Site Engine
• Extreme Fabric Connect

Results

Secure, Reliable, and Scalable Connectivity

• Accommodate demand for high-bandwidth digital applications, such as contactless engagement technologies, as well as multicast video
• Support multiple services on the same physical infrastructure built on Universal Switching, securely isolated from each other
• Extreme Fabric Connect delivers network security features, eliminating backdoor entry points, preventing lateral movements, and isolating potentially unsecure devices

The Only Fabric That Can Be Deployed at a Moment’s Notice

• Changes to the network are made in an instant to support exhibitor requirements at major events
• Extreme Fabric Connect delivers a simple and agile way for DWTC to deploy new services
• DWTC IT team can quickly deploy hundreds of virtual networks to satisfy temporary needs at a moment’s notice

Customer Success at Scale

• 3,300 individual networks deployed on short notice to satisfy demand
• Agile networks that can adjust on the fly for a180,000-pluspersonevent one week and pivot to a completely different setup the next make it possible for DWTC to support hundreds of complex events each year