Foundational Network for Austria’s Inspirational “House of Digitalization”
The House of Digitalization is a showcase of current and futuristic technologies to inspire business and educational institutions
| Customer: | Industry: | Location: |
|---|---|---|
| House of Digitalization | State/local government | Tulln, Austria |
Nestled in the heart of Tulln, Austria, is an amazing showcase of Lower Austria’s digitalization strategy, known as Haus der Digitalisierung, or House of Digitalization. This exciting project serves as the interface between the real and virtual worlds and making the paradigm shift of digitalization tangible. Opened in December 2022, the House of Digitalization was spearheaded by ecoplus Digital GmbH, the business agency of Lower Austria, whose mission is to develop Lower Austria as a place undisputed for its economic value, technological uniqueness, and ecological sustainability.
Indeed, there is no facility quite like the House of Digitalization. The design of the futuristic building features a multi-layered media facade that can display content to readily make the digitalization theme visible to its surroundings. At first sight, visitors get the impression that something exciting is happening here—and it is!
The building serves as a center for a variety of public, commercial and educational activities. Spanning a space of 4,200 square meters, the facility offers a showroom and event area, lecture halls of the Wiener Nuestadt University of Applied Sciences, an indoor and outdoor Networking Zone, office units, a public restaurant, and a FabLab science laboratory of the state of Lower Austria. The focus of the services provided is on supporting local small and medium-sized businesses and educational institutions on their way into the digital future.
Unconventional Demands on the Network
The site was a completely new construction, allowing for an infrastructure based on state-of-the-art networking and other technologies. However, the project was unconventional due to the need to support so many different functions under one roof. This placed unusual demands on the underlying network.
One major objective was to develop a reliable, high-performance network infrastructure that meets current demands while also being future-proof. This network must be flexible to allow easy adaptation to new technologies and applications in the future. For example, it must support a wide range of digital technologies like 3D printing, virtual worlds, and augmented reality, and applications as varied as IoT, Smart Data, and video transmission.
One of the most significant applications is known as The Salzgeber Software Solution, Facility Profiler, which is tightly integrated with the physical access control system called AEOS. Together these systems manage physical access authorizations, alarms, CCTV cameras, energy monitoring, room reservations, building management, and more.
The center features an impressive 120 square meter video wall with relatively high data volumes, and the network infrastructure must support it reliably and without outages. Moreover, the network must ensure simplified management, high Power over Ethernet (PoE) budget, nonstop connectivity, and enhanced network security, thereby guaranteeing a permanent and stable environment for the House of Digitalization.
Network scalability is critically important, as the House of Digitalization serves as a growing hub for numerous digitalization projects and businesses. Integrating cloud-based services and data-intensive applications like AI and Big Data is also a key goal.
And finally, another key aspect of the network is security to protect the sensitive data of connected companies and institutions as well as the physical facility itself. The exhibition “Smart Data + You” features important topics like AI and cybersecurity to make the public aware of trends and capabilities of these critical areas.
Dynamic, Future-Oriented Partnerships Drove Success of the Project
Vienna-based Salzgeber GmbH, known as Salzgeber IT Revolutions, was designated as the lead designer and integrator for the IT systems. For the network infrastructure, Salzgeber considered companies like HPE and Cisco, but ultimately selected Allied Teles is for its comprehensive solution including the Autonomous Management Framework Plus (AMF Plus). Working together, the partners developed a flexible network design to anticipate the growing technological demands in the years ahead.
“Allied Telesis has a compelling offering that is an ideal fit for this project,” says David Salzgeber, CEO, of Salzgeber IT Revolutions. “They proposed a complete solution that was especially important for smooth operation and easy management. We had a short implementation timeframe for this project and Allied Telesis came through with fast delivery capabilities, keeping us perfectly on track.”
The network design includes three physically separate networks: the building technical equipment network, the operator office network, and the network of the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt. Each network is independently constructed from the facility’s fiber optic infrastructure, with redundancy within each fiber optic network. All of them have a ring and a spur line, significantly increasing fault tolerance. There is a network cabinet for each of the three networks on every floor of the building.
Allied Telesis high-performance, feature-rich switches are at the core, the distribution layer, and the access layer of the House of Digitalization’s network. The various families of switches – x950, x530 and x220 – work together to provide high performance, scalability, reliability, resilience, and ease of management.
Overlaying all this equipment is centralized management based on Autonomous Management Framework Plus (AMF Plus), a sophisticated suite of management tools that provides an automated and simplified approach to network management. Powerful features like centralized management, auto-backup, auto-upgrade, auto-provisioning, and auto-recovery enable plug-and-play networking and zero-touch management.
Network installation was completed in just one month’s time, underscoring the commitment of the partner companies to make the House of Digitalization fully functional as soon as possible.
Ready for the Future
Allied Telesis, along with Salzgeber IT Revolutions, is committed to being a long-term partner with ecoplus Digital GmbH as the companies continue to evolve the exciting capabilities showcased at the House of Digitalization. The network is primed and ready to accommodate new technologies and applications for many years to come.
