BY ONG BOON KIAT

THE mega networking infrastructure of Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) which will link up tens of thousands of IT equipment and other devices across the 49-hectare integrated resort is being built with technology from Cisco Systems, the US networking giant is set to announce today.

The cost for this massive project was not disclosed, but primary equipment supplier Cisco has hailed it a 'landmark deployment in Singapore'.

The project is the latest bonanza for technology vendors in Singapore, which have been closely watching the IT procurement activities of RWS and its rival Marina Bay Sands given the sheer size and value of these projects.

RWS's latest technology undertaking is likely one of its most important - as it underpins the resort's integrated operations, which span six hotels, a casino, Universal Studios Singapore and three other large theme parks, in addition to a corporate office and data centre.

'We are essentially building an IT infrastructure for a small city so we needed a robust and mission-critical network platform,' said Yap Chee Yuen, RWS senior vice-president of information technology.

'We have more than 40,000 network points which means we need a network that can handle that level of magnitude as well as be flexible enough for us to scale up when necessary.'

This network is a landmark deployment for Cisco in Singapore because of the scale and complexity of RWS's requirements, said Chris Khang, Cisco vice-president of Asia-Pacific.

'The casino business is 24/7 in nature and continuous uptime is paramount when managing the IT infrastructure. When customers are enjoying the facilities and amenities at RWS, there is an assortment of computing systems at work including hotel reservation systems, financial management applications, slot machine monitoring, and of course, security,' he told BizIT.

Cisco joins tech firms like Dell, NEC Asia, Singapore Technologies Electronics (ST Electronics) as technology providers for RWS.

Dell is supplying servers, while NEC is installing the admission and ticketing system for the Universal Studios attraction. ST Electronics is constructing an integrated security system, an IT infrastructure system, and a car park guidance and payment system in a deal worth $86 million.

These IT projects are now being put in place as the resort steps up its activities to get ready to open its doors to the public by early next year. RWS held its largest recruitment drive over the weekend, offering more than 5,000 jobs and it is looking to fill 8,000 posts by year-end, and 10,000 when it becomes fully operational.

To manage its complex and sprawling network system, RWS will be tapping virtualisation technologies from Cisco. One of the hottest buzzwords among organisations, virtualisation is seen as a means for cutting IT cost.

With virtualisation, RWS will be able to aggregate its storage, computing and network resources as a shared pool. According to Cisco, this will let RWS easily tune its IT systems to business changes, as well as lets it deploy applications in the future without a major overhaul of the infrastructure.

RWS is also counting on a feature that will show, in real time, how much power is being consumed in different parts of the resort's network. This way, IT staff can tweak their power consumption accordingly for a more energy-efficient set-up.

This article was first published in The Business Times.