Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort built a comprehensive infrastructure based on the ProCurve Adaptive EDGE Architecture™. With an all Internet Protocol (IP) network that facilitates voice, video and data, the resort is able to support its diverse operations, including retail sales, hotel operations, telecommunications and video surveillance. Powerful, flexible and reliable, the ProCurve network has dramatically reduced Sunshine Village's costs and vastly improved its overall business security and performance.

With 3,358 acres of skiable terrain, 107 named runs spanning three mountains and two provinces, a 96-room hotel, 26 buildings for food, beverage, retail and staff lodging, a small hospital, its own utilities and up to 8500 visitors on any given day, Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort is a bustling, self-contained community outside Banff, Canada.

"We're essentially a small city," noted Jon Chesnut, Director of Information Technology, Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort. "We needed a technology infrastructure that could support and boost the performance of our diverse operations, which serve a half million skiers and tourists each year."

After a thorough search, Sunshine Village chose to implement a wide-ranging infrastructure using ProCurve Networking by HP products and technologies.

"We reviewed several Tolly Group1 reports that suggested ProCurve technologies are as good, if not better, than the other leading solutions on the market," explained Chesnut. "The reports in conjunction with ProCurve's outstanding cost per port were very compelling."

Sunshine Village has since deployed a comprehensive network based on the ProCurve Adaptive EDGE Architecture, employing ProCurve Routing Switch 9308m at the network core and approximately 20 ProCurve Switch 5300xl and 4100gl series at the network edge. The network powers and facilitates 15 virtual local area networks (VLANs) based on particular applications, such as credit cards, lifts, phones, ATMs, hotel, staff time clocks, food/beverage, video surveillance, wireless hot spot and corporate network, among others.

Chesnut indicated he is a "big ProCurve fan" his network is powerful, flexible, reliable and just keeps getting better.

"ProCurve's phenomenal support continues to blow us away. It's absolutely unmatched," said Chesnut. "Free firmware upgrades with new features are always coming out."

¹ The Tolly Group blends a variety of disciplines—performance benchmarking, deployment assessments, product certifications, market research, etc.—to offer clients a unique set of consulting services. For more information (pdf: 188KB)

With a high-performance infrastructure in place, Sunshine Village was able to realize a single IP network for voice, video and data. The resort is using the IP network for support everything from telecommunications to lift and hotel operations to video surveillance.

Business efficiency has improved as a result. For example, credit card processing—for food/beverage, retail, lift ticket and hotel room purchases—has been shaved from 14 seconds to less than one second per transaction. Chesnut indicated this type of performance increase is invaluable when operating more than 120 credit card terminals, which can now process upwards of $700,000 per hour in sales.

Through ProCurve's partnership with Mitel, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) functionality has also been a significant boon to Sunshine Village's business. VoIP has eliminated long distance costs, linked the main resort with a call center and administrative offices in Calgary, provided secure Internet connections to guests and improved overall communications.

"With an all IP infrastructure based on the ProCurve Adaptive EDGE Architecture, we don't need separate voice, data, credit card, hotel, lift and video surveillance systems," noted Chesnut. "The resulting cost savings and business enhancements are impressive."

• Powerful, integrated IP infrastructure that supports voice, video and data
• VoIP functionality for reduced costs and technology improved communications
• Free firmware upgrades with no service and support contracts

The ProCurve Networking business unit of HP is a supplier of enterprise networking solutions comprising wired and wireless networking products, services and solutions—including WAN routers, Ethernet switches, routing switches, wireless access points and network management applications—which allow customers to build networks based on open standards that meet current and future needs for security, performance and reliability.

The ProCurve Networking Adaptive EDGE Architecture is a unique design strategy that creates a secure, mobile, multi-service network by placing intelligence at the edge-where users connect and policies are enforced. This innovative approach creates a dynamic network infrastructure designed to keep up with advancing technology and user needs while protecting business investments.

When you are ready to explore the benefits a ProCurve Networking solution can offer you, call HP at 1-800-975-7682.

To learn more about ProCurve Networking's Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ solutions, visit our home page.

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