16 January 2017
There’s more to Fulham FC’s stadium than staging a match every other Saturday – it also hosts events such as weddings, parties, tours and corporate functions.
Founded in 1879, the club can accommodate 25,700 fans at its Craven Cottage ground. Players train at a site eight miles away in New Malden.
It is run by 250 staff aided by IT kit over three sites comprising two data centres running VMware, EMC storage, Juniper switches and Veeam for backup and offsite replication. This is underpinned by a VPLS from Exponential-e.
IT head Alex Malinov says: “Even if there isn’t a game going on, the players are training, people here are gearing up for the next big match, and often our event spaces are being hired out. Ensuring that the IT network is able to support those activities is hugely important.”
He explains why he decided to implement a monitoring solution to overlook the network: “There is a definite need to be aware of what’s happening on the network, to be able to react to issues straight away and, increasingly, prevent the issues from happening in the first place.”
After evaluations, he chose Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor which had initially been recommended by a colleague. Malinov says it is cost-effective and easy to use: “sFlow provides visibility of bandwidth usage, which is very important on match days, for instance. This is impossible to replicate outside of when it is actually happening, so it helps us to plan for it. We also use VMWare sensors, plus we ping our stadium turnstiles.”
As well as the web interface, he also uses Paessler’s iPhone app and says it is extremely useful when he is on the move. “It allows me to prioritise any alerts that come through outside of office hours quickly and easily.”
Malinov has customised the monitor to only send emails for serious outages, otherwise the IT team relies on the sensors changing colour. He has also set up a large screen in the office showing the club’s entire network topography and all of the sensors that are installed – if there is a problem, it automatically flashes up.
