CASE STUDY
Luciano Ammenti, CIO, Vatican Apostolic
Library, said: “We needed a solution with a
tangible contribution to technology and a
solution provider with specialised knowledge
to allow the Vatican Apostolic Library to
easily extend its services to patrons well into
the future.”
Strategic objectives
The Vatican Apostolic Library needed the
capability to monitor and manage its new
data centre and support the demand for
increased power and capacity. The existing
tools were inadequate and the new data
centre needed to address inefficiencies
surrounding power monitoring, energy
management, capacity and environmental
conditions, while offering the latest
technology to the library’s users. This
would allow the Vatican Apostolic Library to
address current needs and prepare for future
growth as the digitisation project progressed.
In addition, the data centre enhancements
would support the Vatican Apostolic Library’s
commitment to create a setting which allows
readers to easily access the manuscripts
while avoiding further degradation of the
original materials.
Flexible solution
After validating the robust performance
of the connectivity previously installed at
the main data centre, located in a nearby
site, the Vatican Apostolic Library again
selected the company to fulfil its network
infrastructure requirements. This included
implementing the integrated physical
infrastructure, hardware and software,
and the hot aisle containment system for
the new site within the historical home of
the Vatican Apostolic Library. According to
Ammenti: “The consultative approach of
the team along with partners allowed us to
resolve our physical infrastructure challenges
with credibility and reliability.”
The implementation of the company’s smart
sealed cabinet solutions allows the Vatican
Apostolic Library to monitor and process realtime
data and access current and historical
views of power and temperature, providing
enhanced functionality and visibility across
its entire physical infrastructure.
The solution addresses the Library’s
power and energy usage challenges,
capacity constraints, environmental issues,
patch field connectivity and security and
access control requirements to provide
the tools and information needed to
make intelligent decisions for its data
operations. The smart solution gateways
simplify the Vatican Apostolic Library’s
network architecture by processing
and consolidating the monitoring,
management and control of gatewayenabled
rack power distribution units
(PDUs) and environmental sensors through
a single IP address, reducing the need for
separate IP ports. This information can
then be displayed via internal firmware or
utilised by the company’s monitoring and
analysis software platform for real-time
monitoring and display, management and
automated documentation of operational
metrics. This provides predictability in
the environment allowing for proactive
maintenance processes to be implemented.
To enhance data centre security, the
gateways support access control card
readers on cabinets and manage encrypted
access data for smart card technologies
and other digital readers.
The upgraded network infrastructure
includes eight S-Type server cabinets,
thermally compartmentalised using a Hot
Aisle Containment (HAC) system for energy
efficiency, optimised airflow distribution
and improved thermal performance across
the data centre. The cabinets consist of
components that maintain hot/cold air
separation to improve cooling efficiency by
40% when compared to the previous cooling
system, which significantly lowers cooling
expenses for the Vatican Apostolic Library.
To improve cable management while
ensuring system performance, durability
and reliability within the Vatican Apostolic
Library’s data centre solution, high-capacity
horizontal cable managers and patch-links
horizontal cable managers were deployed.
The solution was completed with Panduit
copper and fibre systems for connectivity
within the cabinets. Together, the OM3
fibre optic transport system (MPO
interconnects, angled patch panels and
THE PURPOSE OF THE DATA CENTRE
PROJECT WAS TO PROVIDE THE
TECHNOLOGY AND FUNCTIONALITY
NEEDED TO SUPPORT THE FUTURE
DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL STORAGE OF
THE VALUED MANUSCRIPTS.
pre-terminated fibre cassettes) and
Category 6A 10 Gb copper system provide
reliable network performance and enable
application availability while exceeding the
latest industry standards. The consistent
performance and reliability accommodates
the Vatican Apostolic Library’s current and
predicted network performance needs.
“The use of Panduit technology has provided
us with an essential contribution to our data
centre in terms of efficiency, infrastructure
management and data availability, creating
balance between cost and performance,”
said Ammenti.
The robust and innovative architecture
of the integrated data centre solution
provided the Vatican Apostolic Library
with the capability to support the vast
amount of data generated by the
digitisation project, ensuring high reliability
and elevated transmission speed. The
deployment time for the installation was
30% less than deployment time offered by
alternate solutions, which provided added
value for the overall project.
Since the completion of the project, visiting
users of the Vatican Apostolic Library are
surprised by the sophistication of the
implemented solution and the capabilities
that it now provides. •
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