Aruba Networks, a leading provider of enterprise mobility, has successfully completed one of the Middle East’s largest wireless LAN projects in hospitality at the 3,000-room Ezdan Hotels West Bay in Qatar.

“Today wi-fi is an imperative technology to satisfy travellers who expect to stay connected at all times,” said Samer Habbouch, territory manager, Qatar at Aruba Networks. “Although most guests expect wi-fi to be a free service, they are quick to vocalise their dissatisfaction if the wireless quality is not up to mark. Aruba's enterprise-class mobility solution has enabled Ezdan to provide its guests with hassle-free, secure and reliable Internet access.”

The decision to select the Aruba solution was based on the proactive support of Aruba Networks and its integration partner, Qatar Datamation Systems (QDS), and Aruba’s ability to centrally manage and automate labour-intensive tasks. This was particularly important given the large size of the property, which made manually configuring and maintaining Access Points (APs) a significant challenge.

While the hotel continued to operate at full capacity, QDS completed the deployment in just three months, avoiding any inconvenience to guests. QDS installed the wireless LAN across the entire facility including guest rooms, banquet halls, parking, pool and additional guest areas. Each AP was strategically deployed to extend wireless coverage to more than one room, reducing the number of APs and installation time to reduce overall cost. The hotel utilised Aruba mobility controllers, giving its IT team the ability to manage secure authentication, encryption, VPN connections, IPv4 and IPv6 services and wireless intrusion protection for more than 32,000 mobile devices simultaneously.

With Aruba's solution in place, Ezdan Hotels West Bay now has complete visibility and control of the network and devices on it from a single, easy-to-use interface. The hotel's IT team has also added comprehensive real-time monitoring capabilities to streamline troubleshooting and remediation by implementing Aruba AirWave Network Management. AirWave allows the hotel to identify and resolve problems in its wireless network before the issue results in helpdesk calls from guests, the company said.

“Aruba's mobility solutions are centred around delivering enterprise-grade quality and performance in a cost-efficient package,” said Habbouch. “This huge project at Ezdan Hotels West Bay is further validation of our capabilities to meet #GenMobile mobility needs in the hospitality sector. The new Aruba infrastructure not only supports complimentary wi-fi for guests, but can also be leveraged as a platform to generate new revenue streams through premium service offerings,” he said. – TradeArabia News Service