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Royal Caribbean International has long been a household name in the recreational cruising

arena. Famous for its slogan, “The Nation of Why Not,” Royal Caribbean has been in the

vanguard of cruising innovation for some time. With the debut of its new flagship, Oasis of the

Seas, the company has taken oceangoing innovation to new levels—both literally and figuratively.

Towering above the water line at 213 feet high, spanning 1,187 feet in length and weighing

225,282 gross registered tons, Oasis is as long as the Empire State building is high!

Accommodating 5,400 passengers in 2,700 staterooms,Oasis offers seven neighborhoods

including the first-ever park at sea, an 82-foot zip line, beach pool, carousel, high-dive

performances, and the only Tony award-winning Broadway musical at sea, Hairspray.

All of the ship’s amenities and attractions are seamlessly delivered to passengers via an equally

innovative unified communications network powering every aspect of daily operations—from

embarkation to spa reservations, channel surfing in staterooms to ordering entrees, the entire

ship runs on a system that is a technological phenomenon developed expressly for Oasis in

partnership with Cisco and Insight.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN INTERNATIONAL’S OASIS OF THE SEASCase Study

SOLUTION AT A GLANCE

CompanyRoyal Caribbean International

IndustryGlobal Recreational Cruising

ChallengeIntegrate and deploy a comprehensive unified

communications network and all associated IT

infrastructure for the world’s largest cruise ship.

SolutionBuild a custom lab to stage, configure, test

and ship the communications network system,

simultaneously matched by driving thousands of

IT infrastructure components through Insight’s

existing integration facility.

Leverage Insight best practices in project

management, client communications, network

infrastructure, integration services, supplier

coordination, comprehensive documentation,

system testing, and warehouse/distribution

services.

Utilize proven project management methodology

and core integration competencies to deploy:

the onboard network, unified communications

system, data center, and thousands of client

nodes. This infrastructure in turn, serves the

ship’s 5,400 passengers, 2,700 state rooms,

nine specialty restaurants, seven ‘neighborhood’

activity zones, and numerous specialty shops

across 16 decks.

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INSIGHT NAVIGATES A NEW NETWORK DEPLOYMENT APPROACHLike everything else about Oasis, its network and communications core represents innovation

without precedent. Nothing like it has ever powered any cruise ship, certainly nothing on the

scale of Oasis. As plans got under way, it was clear that Royal Caribbean needed to take a

new approach to the building and integration of this massive, unified communications network

infrastructure.

DEDICATED INTEGRATION LABWhile Royal Caribbean maintains an integration facility in Pembroke Park, Florida, near its

home port of Port Everglades, it became clear that additional facilities were required for

the build-out of the Oasis infrastructure because of its extensive power, space and cooling

requirements. However, the cost of building a new facility in both time and monetary terms

proved to be prohibitive. Rather than incurring the multimillion-dollar expense of a new

integration facility, Royal Caribbean chose to partner with Insight. The technology solution

provider’s Integration Lab in Hanover Park, Illinois met Royal’s facility needs and provided the

integration expertise required for the entire infrastructure build-out.

Within the facility complex, Insight built a 3,000-square-foot lab to create dedicated, secure space for configuring Royal’s network. The space included office space for Royal personnel, complete with data ports that linked them directly to the company’s network.

“ Correct knowledge transfer was vital—those involved at Insight included sales, procurement, credit, distribution, integration, field, and project management groups. Also, we needed to partner with Cisco architects and engineers, numerous OEM partners, and of course, our client counterparts. The Insight project management team served as Royal Caribbean’s single point of contact in managing Insight’s numerous internal/external teams… blending consulting, proof-of-concept and actual build outs in a comprehensive format.”

– Tim Campbell, VP Client Solutions, Insight

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Once the facility was ready, Insight and Royal Caribbean project management teams developed a

timeline for planning, implementing, testing and ultimately deploying the network and additional

equipment. Timeline accuracy and cooperation were vital to the success of the project; the

Insight and Royal Caribbean teams collaborated closely to ensure milestones were met and

project elements were successfully completed.

BUILDING THE IT INFRASTRUCTURE In terms of both network infrastructure and unified communications, the project’s scale was

unparalleled: 2,000-plus televisions, 300 interactive digital signs, 900 wireless access points,

1,000 wireless IP phones, and 365 POS devices, all running on the network and each anchored

by an IP address. To support such requirements, the network backbone clearly had to be

exceptionally robust, agile and secure.

Based on the network design and architecture provided by Royal Caribbean, Insight staged and

configured the network infrastructure to provide the required level of onboard functionality.

This included cabling together approximately 50 Cisco chassis switches with 2,500 8-port

cabin switches for a fully converged data network running on 60-plus enclosed HP blade

servers. In addition, the solution included combinations of Lenovo desktops, Panasonic laptops,

Cisco IP phones, handheld POS devices and numerous wireless access points. In total, about

10,000 pieces of equipment were deployed to establish Oasis’ unified communications and

network system. Insight’s strong and established relationships with partners like Cisco truly

facilitated the orchestration and delivery of all moving parts, which in this case, numbered in

the high thousands.

During the system configuration process, the Insight team shadowed Royal Caribbean personnel,

which enabled them to author and compile documentation for every network process and

create a defined roadmap for future deployment. Royal Caribbean also engages with various

third-party contractors that have an onboard presence with proprietary software systems. Insight

coordinated with Royal Caribbean to provide access and security clearance for these multiple

vendors, allowing them to work side by side within the facility. Collaborating closely with its

Royal Caribbean counterparts, the Insight team assisted in the coordination of these diverse

third-party contractors as the system was prepared for testing and delivery.

With a satellite feed and DS-3 connection to Royal Caribbean, Insight assisted in the conduction

of a rigorous User Acceptance Testing analysis to ensure seamless execution, followed by

shipment of all equipment to the shipyard in Turku, Finland. The shipping process included

staging, palletizing and coordinating numerous skids that ultimately were loaded on to six,

40-foot container trucks. The trucks went from Illinois to New Jersey where the material

was loaded onto container ships to transport it across the Atlantic to reach its destination in

southwestern Finland.

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INSIGHT – A WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES

• Global provider of information technology (IT) hardware, software and service solutions to business and public sector organizations

• $5.3 billion in revenue in 2011• 5,300 teammates worldwide• Operations in 23 countries, serving clients

in 191 countries worldwide• 2,300+ product and industry certifications• Global software reseller with extensive

License Management Services• Software lifecycle support for 80 percent of

global Fortune 500• Number 460 on the 2012 Fortune 500

Insight and the Insight logo are registered trademarks of Insight Direct USA, Inc. All other trademarks, registered trademarks, photos, logos and illustrations are the property of their respective owners. ©2012, Insight Direct USA, Inc. All rights reserved. Updated 6.29. 12-13682

SOLUTIONS AND OUTCOMES

As Oasis made her maiden voyage from the shipyard in December 2009, she sailed under the auspices of a unified communications systems and network infrastructure that, in technological terms, are as commanding as her silhouette.

Today, the Oasis Class includes sister ship Allure of the Seas, for which Insight is providing the same level of comprehensive technology services deployed for Oasis.

In addition, the Insight team is providing scalable technology solutions for Celebrity Cruises’ newest ship group, the Solstice Class. Part of the Royal Caribbean family, Celebrity focuses on different segments of the cruise market and is

launching a new vessel—Eclipse—that will join sister ships Equinox and Solstice already waterborne. Currently under construction in Germany, Eclipse will require the same level of expertise and collaboration between Insight and Royal Caribbean that made the Oasis engagement so successful.

Over the course of the contract, a total of five ships’ full IT infrastructure will be developed, integrated, tested and delivered by Insight. Clearly, the robust, process-driven solution pioneered with Oasis has both relevance and application for the remaining four ships under contract. Common to these engagements is Insight’s ability to scale to each ship’s requirements—whether in terms of the integration environment, seamlessly functioning as an extended team, or other operational efficiencies.

The breadth and depth of Insight solutions and services represent an opportunity for leading technology engagements to be completed on even the most extraordinary scale. Clearly, the Oasis of the Seas engagement demonstrates Insight’s ability to successfully navigate such complex requirements.

“ Oasis of the Seas represents a new generation of cruise ship with its remarkable technological attributes; partnering with Insight to build the network and related infrastructure has been an extraordinary advantage in making this innovation a reality”

– Bill Martin, Chief Information Officer,

Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd .