"The successful deployment of NetWare 5.1 will ensure that we have a leading edge, pure IP network with the capability to provide a secure platform for the development of our e-commerce activities."

-Peter Burgess
Head of Information Services Delivery
Manchester Airport

Overview

Manchester Airport is one of the UK's busiest airports handling over 18 million passengers and 186,000 aircraft movements each year. A staff of 2,000 rely on the network to access Manchester Airport's Operational Database (AODB) which provides all the business systems for the airport from flight check-in, scheduling and baggage handling to customs and security control.

Challenge

NetWare had proven to be robust and reliable in the demanding, 24-7 operating environment of the airport, but Manchester Airport's Head of Information Services Delivery, Peter Burgess, set challenging objectives to exploit the power of Novell® eDirectory™ and provide 100% hot-desking capability for all its networks users. Airport staff needed the flexibility to access applications and data running on a variety of operating systems from any PC around the site, but security was also a key criteria for the IT department.

Novell and Xencom* Solution

The network at Manchester Airport currently comprises 800 Compaq* workstations running Windows NT* as the application operating system, with nine network servers running NetWare® 4.11. Access to the existing IBM AS400-based financial system is made via a NetWare AS400 client. Novell eDirectory, Novell's multi-platform directory services technology, provides centralized control and configuration management of the network and simplifies user access through Single Sign-on-requiring only a single password for users to access their specific applications.

To provide 'hot-desking' for all the network users, Novell system integration specialist, Xencom*, instigated a 50-user trial with beta versions of Novell ZENworks™ desktop management software in 1998 and migrated the complete network's directory to integrate with ZENworks in January 1999.

"Two years ago, Novell Directory Services® and ZENworks provided the most compelling reasons for us to continue using NetWare as our core network operating system," said Burgess, explaining the airport's decision to continue investing in Novell, particularly NetWare. "We needed 100% ability to 'hot desk' and this system provided us with the capability."

The ability to control user profiles and policies is very powerful, yet 'hot desking' presents special challenges. The network is intelligent enough to recognize where users are logging in and assign local resources, such as printers, to that user. With improved security and management, the airport could now lock down users' desktops, controlling the software accessed, added or removed.

Manchester Airport used Lotus SmartSuite* as its standard office application, but initial problems were encountered with 'hot desk' access to cc:Mail accounts. System Integration Director at Xencom, Mike Flanagan, recalled, "We overcame the problem of users logging into their cc:Mail accounts from different workstations by integrating NDS directly with the NT registry. To avoid creating local accounts in NT to access remote domains, we created temporary user accounts at log on which disappear at log off. In this way, we achieved a completely hot-deskable solution.

ZENworks also offered immediate advantages as we were replacing all the AS400 terminals with PCs running Windows NT. ZENworks distributed applications and client software to all users simultaneously and transferred all users to the new system overnight.

Upgrades are now quick and painless. Some users can even upgrade automatically by exiting the application, a useful option for users who never log off the network. ZENworks also provides a software audit trail to keep track of upgrades and to verify the correct number of software licenses for the users.

"Manchester Airport is owned by the ten Greater Manchester councils and cost efficiency is a prime concern," Burgess said. "In addition to NetWare and ZENworks, we have deployed Novell Account Management (formerly NDS Corporate Edition) to centralize management of the Windows NT environment from NWAdmin. Novell BorderManager™ provides the firewall technology to protect our systems and it includes Internet caching technology to accelerate Web page downloads. Our entire operation was conceived by two technical architects from our system integrator, Xencom, who also designed the installation for operational support from our 24-7 help desk."

Future

With passenger numbers predicted to grow to 40.7 million by 2015, Manchester Airport will introduce e-commerce services to support this growth. "We have just signed a new contract with Novell to upgrade our NetWare servers to NetWare 5.1," Burgess said. "As we set our e-commerce strategy to offer new online services to our customers, the successful deployment of NetWare 5.1 will ensure that we have a leading edge, pure IP network with the capability to provide a secure platform for the development of our e-commerce activities."

Copyright 2001. Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

*All other brand or product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies.

Country: UK
Industry: travel, airport
Business Challenge(s): flexibility, security, growth
Novell Products/Solution: ZENworks, NetWare, Single Sign-on
Business Benefit(s): upgrades overnight, security, access control