Alternative content

When the Dallas Cowboys planned to build the largest retractable-roof stadium in the NFL, they partnered with CDW to make it the ultimate entertainment experience for their fans.

The beauty of 3-million-square-foot Cowboys Stadium is impossible to miss. Two towering arches span the length of the stadium providing enough support to house the world's largest HD video board. The world's largest retractable glass doors rest at each end of the stadium giving the 100,000-plus fans panoramic views and fresh air.

This beauty has brains too. With the help of CDW, Cowboys Stadium features a brand new virtualized data center. It incorporates 127 Hewlett-Packard blade servers and a new 100-terabyte storage area network (SAN) that provide the processing power needed to run operations throughout the stadium.

Data Center

The data center is the nerve center of the stadium. There was not a lot of technology in the old facility, Texas Stadium, and the team wanted a change. "Really, we'd turn on the lights and roll out the footballs and they'd go after it. The only technology we had there was a little bit in the press box for the media. Other than that, it was pretty antiquated technology," says Bill Haggard, the Cowboys' Director of Enterprise Infrastructure.

In order to deliver the ultimate fan experience today and into the future, the Cowboys knew they would need a data center that can keep up with the times. "We get different trends in the industry for video, voice, computers and handhelds, and now we're able to layer that on top of the infrastructure that we put in place and offer the fans a better experience each and every year," says the Cowboys' CIO Pete Walsh.

CDW solution architects went to the team's headquarters to discuss needs for the new stadium. They assessed the existing infrastructure and came armed with information on all the latest technologies including blade servers, SAN and tape backup.

"We were basically there to consult with the customer, on-site. We would sit down, 3-4 hour meetings, to go over speeds, feeds and capabilities, and really get a good understanding of how we were going to address all the challenges of and the needs they would have to face," says CDW Account Manager, Steve Lanci.

CDW representatives were on site with the Cowboys' IT team on a daily basis throughout the 18-month plan-to-implementation process, helping to assess, design, install and maintain their solutions. "We actually put all the infrastructure and technology in the stadium in 9 months. That's a pretty short amount of time for a project this large," explains Haggard.

In the enviable position of equipping a glamorous stadium with state-of-the-art technology, Cowboys CIO Pete Walsh went about networking 3100 flat-screen TVs, 884 wireless access points, 655 point of sale terminals and 185 IP security cameras. The stadium uses 250 miles of fiber optic cable, 6 million feet of copper wiring and has 70 wiring closets.

All of this is controlled in one, surprisingly small data center. "As data centers go, the one here at the Cowboys Stadium is not that large. It's about 5,000 square feet. The team is made up of over 30 companies, over 90 different locations, and just under 500 employees. What we're able to do for the first time is manage all of those companies out of one, centralized place," explains Walsh.

The data center has about 100 TBs of data. It runs all of the Cowboys' different operations. They're able to access data very quickly to generate the reports they need, especially on game day. The team is now able to see how many hot dogs, hamburgers and sodas have been sold in real-time. In addition, the merchandising staff can monitor inventory on the fly and replenish supplies if certain stores in the stadium are running low.

"CDW helped us understand how we could virtualize certain applications in our data center to make them more beneficial for our use and make them more flexible and scalable so we could use them in the future," explains Walsh. CDW helped the Cowboys understand how virtualization and storage can work in conjunction with each other. They helped them design the most optimal solution for their technology.

Virtualization

The team's former home, Texas Stadium, used legacy servers located across three different sites, including the team's headquarters and merchandise facility. These 5-7 year old servers would not be able to handle the new processing requirements and were retired with the old stadium. "It was time to upgrade to the next generation," explains Cowboys CIO Pete Walsh. "You can imagine old processors versus new processors and how much faster they are. The good thing is now we can pretty much centralize everything in one data center. Now we have one place to manage all servers and storage."

The Cowboys turned to CDW to help design and install a new server infrastructure for their new palace. They now have a single, centralized data center to house their 127 new blade servers. Pre-configured by CDW, the blades allow the IT department to fully maximize the processing power in each server and easily deploy new servers when needed.

As a result of centralizing the servers, everything in Cowboys Stadium operates on one system and one network. The new point of sale (POS) system requires that each of the team's 212 concession stands use its own server for processing sales. Instead of purchasing 212 individual servers to run each concession stand, the IT team deployed 212 VMware virtual machines on 16 physical blade servers.

Storage area network (SAN) technology allows the Cowboys to better utilize storage capacity and more easily manage and backup data. They use another 30 virtual machines as file and printer servers for day-to-day operations for employees. "Virtualization reduced our data center footprint," Walsh says. "We save space and power while increasing the computing capacity of the enterprise."

The use of smaller, virtualized blade servers and SAN consolidate the amount of hardware used. This saves on data center space and reduces power consumption. The result is reduced total cost of ownership, improved performance and a more efficient, easier to use data center.

CDW helped the Cowboys understand what applications could be virtualized, and how they could best use those virtualized platforms to cut down on the amount of physical servers needed in the stadium. By virtualizing certain applications, the team became more flexible and scalable so they could use them in the future.

The CDW account team assigned to Cowboys Stadium took great detail in understanding the team's business and what their challenges were with the new stadium. They brought in and collaborated with the right business partners and gave the IT team access to the different innovation labs, whether it was HP, AT&T, Motorola or whomever they needed to meet with.

"Our interaction with HP was day-to-day. They almost became a part of the family, because I think the CDW team was speaking with them more than we spoke with our own family at the time. But it was ongoing communication: daily phone calls, status on where we were on the project from architecture, to inventory levels, to where we were in the staging cycle of things. And then, after the equipment was delivered to the stadium, we had to work with them every day as it was being deployed, making sure equipment was functioning properly, that it was the right fit, and that there wasn't anything else we needed to add on that we hadn't perhaps foreseen in the beginning, or that the team wanted to add later," explains Toni Hargis, CDW District Sales Manager in Dallas.

Overall, the Cowboy's IT department is proud of its handiwork. Cowboys Stadium represents the epitome of technology. Since its opening, thousands of fans tour weekly. "This Cowboys have always been a forward-thinking organization," Walsh says. "With the new stadium, we've jumped to the forefront of a lot of new, emerging technologies."

More Technology Inside Cowboys Stadium

The Stadium of the Future

Cowboys Stadium, which holds more than 100,000 people with standing-room-only sections, is full of new amenities. Besides the many video screens, the new stadium offers:

Robust Cell Service

The Cowboys have installed a distributed antenna system to boost bandwidth for cell phone users who subscribe to major cellular carriers.

Free Wi-Fi service

The Cowboys provide fans with wireless network access throughout the stadium.

Smart Phone Applications

To take advantage of the bandwidth, the Cowboys are building new smart phone applications that will allow fans in the stadium to keep up with football scores and stats.

Hall of Fame

The Cowboys are designing a Hall of Fame Museum that will take advantage of cutting-edge interactive technology.

RFID Bracelets for Children

To protect children, the Cowboys plans to install a system that allows children to wear Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) bracelets. If kids get lost, parents can use the technology to find them.