Case Study: ExCeL London achieves always-on availability for critical applications with DataCore Software (SANsymphony)

DataCore assures that the UK’s largest conference venue, the ExCeL, is ‘always-on

The ExCeL (ExCeL London), the UK’s largest conference and exhibition centre serving over 3 million visitors a year and supporting more than 60 permanent staff, faced a strict requirement for always‑on IT to run critical event registration, management and venue systems. To address this, the venue adopted DataCore’s SANsymphony software‑defined storage as the shared backend for a VMware vSphere virtualised environment, deployed in a replicated dual‑node configuration across two physically separated data centres.

Working with partner Virtual IT, the team implemented a mirrored active‑active SANsymphony design with synchronous replication, caching and automatic failover (running Nexsan arrays on HP hardware), delivering uninterrupted high availability for more than ten years. DataCore’s solution provided on‑demand scalability and no‑cost generational upgrades under support, enabled the centre to absorb an extra 1.2 million visitors over a six‑week Olympic period with no service impact, and repeatedly protected applications during planned and unplanned outages.

ExCeL London

Simon Hartog

ExCeL London