How one reseller won lion's share of Adelaide Zoo's IT

Do you use Veeam for backup?

Mat: Yes, Veeam is the main backup we use here. We physically log in and check all of the software.

Ashlen: Veeam facilitates two things. It’s the backup, but it’s also the disaster recovery. The machines are always in sync with each other. They’re something like only two minutes apart. That was an operation that took us about three weeks. 

Is the zoo a 24-7 business?

Ashlen: We are. We’re a 24-7, 365-day business. Uptime is crucial for all our admissions and security camera systems for animals. Even the animal support systems are on our infrastructure. 

With the building management system, we monitor things like water usage, economy, and power. We’re a conservation organisation so we do rely a lot on those figures. After introducing the new infrastructure, we’ve saved over $400,000 in electricity alone. 

We have come a long way, with a bit of leadership and funding. A bit of give and take, here and there.

Something to mention is the switching technology we’re using. We run, on any given day, 13 networks. We’ve got services running that are dedicated on those networks. The way it all comes together is quite amazing. I’ve had other Cisco gentlemen coming in to have a look at our set-up. They took their hats off to the configurations and the way we do things over here. 

We treat the switching technology at an enterprise level, not as a general corporate business. I do everything on the enterprise level. If I’m doing switching, it’s got to be Cisco. It’s got to be the 37 series. It’s got to have longevity. I don’t mind paying the extra now to reap the rewards later down the line.

In the past, when we had little funding or funding was tight, we invested in poor switching technology. Over the years, I’ve got a pile of scrap metal – the zoo noted that. They said, “You know what. We’ll do things properly. We’ve seen the benefits.” 

The system – touch wood – has not gone down in the last two years. The only time we did go down was when we turned it off to replace parts and to see how it would respond.

How does the new infrastructure improve the zoo?

Ashlen: During my first year, I worked with Subnet to get the structure sorted out, to make sure it was bulletproof. We achieved that goal. In year number two, the idea was to buy this data centre. 

I want to direct all the benefits to the visitor. We said, “Okay, let’s just lay a big wireless [network]. Let’s lay sound-scaping around the zoo but we want it centrally controlled.” So all of that just comes down that one pipe that we laid. We want to give our members more as well, so we wanted to provide online tours or virtual tours around the zoo, and four-dimensional cinema robotics holograms. 

All those [initiatives] will be using our existing infrastructure. So it was paramount that we got it right in the beginning. When we first started those projects, there were financial constraints. We’ve had to crawl our way out of situations and we’re at a very good standing now. We’ve saved quite a bit of money investing in the new technology. 

For example, in the past, staff would have to go from Monarto to Adelaide or Adelaide to Monarto. We’ve now got Microsoft Lync running, which facilitates all these meetings. We’ve saved on fuel, vehicles and time spent on people driving. Over time, these savings add up. 

We’ve seen those benefits and now the zoo is investing more and more into ICT. We don’t look for the plaster solution any longer. My take is always we go big or we don’t do it at all. We want to do it for the next 10 years, not for the next two. 

Next: the challenges