Public Library Amsterdam (Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam)

Tehe citizens of Amsterdam have been coming to the Public Library Amsterdam (OBA) for almost a hundred years to gain knowledge and enrich their lives. The organization comprises a central library and 27 offices with approximately 1,500 workplaces. These provide library work in the municipalities of Amsterdam, Diemen and Ouder-Amstel. With almost five million visitors, the library is the most visited cultural institution in Amsterdam. The headquarters of the OBA on the Oosterdokseiland attracts around 5,000 visitors every day.

After almost a century, the OBA is just as much a library as a podium, exhibition floor, studio, laboratory, workshop space, classroom, reading and study room: Amsterdam’s largest platform for the exchange of knowledge, information and culture. OBA wants to strengthen this position by, among other things, making more room for the digital platform, in addition to the traditional library function. Nine specialists work at the IT department of the OBA.

“The basic principle of the OBA is to offer customers a full, robust and secure digital service. ”The main office of the OBA also houses a theater, a radio station and media companies. They use the same infrastructure. The capacity requirements imposed on the network are therefore rising explosively. This requires more development and management capacity in the field of IT. “Reliability and privacy protection are crucial,” (Jos Fotinos, Manager ICT)

Network function is essential for the digital library

Voor de dienstverlening is een stabiele en betrouwbare netwerk infrastructuur essentieel. De locaties hebben geen eigen IT-afdeling en zijn afhankelijk van de netwerkverbinding met de hoofdlocatie. Bij uitval van het netwerk moeten alle activiteiten gestopt worden en vestigingen gesloten. Dit betekent naast verlies aan productietijd ook imagoschade. De dienstverlening vindt steeds meer online plaats en 7×24.

“The network did not meet the requirements for a future-oriented solution. Too little stability, too low performance, no possibility to monitor traffic and – importantly – no support for PoE +.” (Roel de Haan, infrastructure architect OBA).

The OBA wants a network that is prepared for 10 Gb technology and has been implemented with 1 Gb modules. For the main location, the switches must be equipped with PoE + where necessary. The environment must be equipped with a central management environment for easy management and avoiding travel time with small adjustments.

HPE Intelligent Management Center

Together with certified business partner BPSolutions, the OBA started looking for the best solution in December 2015 and came up with an HPE Solution. BPSolutions is a recognized advisor in the field of dynamic ICT infrastructures, data management and analyzes. The company delivered and implemented a new network infrastructure and ensured the migration of the existing environment. Complicating factor was that it had to be switched over while the visitors and employees were not allowed to notice anything. Switching of the switches happened mainly in the evening and at the weekend.

“The network uses HPE 5900 switches for the core, HPE 5130HI switches for the main location and HPE 5130EI switches for the remaining locations. The switches for the main location also have the advantage that they have extra PoE power. “(Roel de Haan, infrastructure architect OBA).”

The renewal involved around 30 switches at the main location and 27 switches at the sites with a total of more than 2,500 ports.

“We chose HPE Intelligent Management Center for managing the switches. For example, you can easily configure a spare switch if you need to quickly replace a faulty switch. This ensures that any downtime can be kept to a minimum. “(Roel de Haan, infrastructure architect OBA).”

Benefits HPE switches

Because the HPE switches have PoE +, a next project – improving VoIP telephony – can start quickly. Because of the wide range, the right switch can be chosen for each situation: smaller for the locations and PoE + switches at the main location. All switches run on the same OS, making them easy to manage centrally. One of the advantages that the OBA wanted to achieve.

The OBA prefers to opt for solutions that have proven themselves and are widely known in the market.

“We are not an ICT development department. If we need people, they must already be familiar with our hardware and software. This is only possible for players with a large market share.” (Jos Fotinos, ICT Manager)

The OBA focuses on growth of both activities and visitors.

“A robust network is essential for all our activities. We will continue to optimize this lifeline – think of more and more wireless devices – and do so on a stable platform that manages to manage our intensive network traffic without congestion. That we have realized now.” (Jos Fotinos, ICT Manager)