8
Business View Magazine
Adopting the latest in technology is another way in
which the Center continues to serve its clients while
staying ahead of the competition. “We have a very ro-
bust IT system, here,” Hayes says. “We have a 600 MB
dedicated server in the building that’s burstable to 2
GB; all of the back-up end hardware in the building is
actually capable of 10 GB. So, as that demand arises
in the next few years, we’ll be able to pretty easily build
up that bandwidth as needed. That service is also re-
dundant; we have two separate feeds coming into the
venue with auto-failovers. Between them, we have 240
Aruba access points throughout the facility – they’re
80.211ac – the latest and greatest. So, in terms of
performance, the tethering from a handheld device to
an access point is greatly improved with this ac ver-
sion.”
The Center’s high-tech capabilities have been instru-
mental in gaining and retaining some important cli-
ents who depend on the venue’s powerful systems.
“One of them is called Educational Testing Services.
It’s a group that comes to us each year. They grade
AP exams. They’re a very high-tech group; they push
data live to servers in other parts of the country and
they have required of us redundancies in our IT sys-
tem that are just about second-to-none in the indus-
try. We are also, this year, hosting for the second time
in four years, the IEEE Super Computing Show. While
here, they will build the fastest computer in the world.
To facilitate this, the Utah Education Network brings in
all the hardware, circuits and bandwidth to make this
possible, and then leaves everything at the Salt Palace
for our continued use. As a result, we’re an incredibly
high-tech venue and one that I’m proud of.”
While Hayes is justifiably proud of the Center’s IT ca-
pabilities, as well as its sustainability practices, he
realizes that those aspects of the venue are merely
