Panduit’s integrated data centre solution has enabled Calzedonia SpA to improve uptime and systems reliability, allowing it to execute its expansion plans for improved scalability, flexibility and sustainability

Calzedonia SpA designs and manufactures a wide collection of hosiery, lingerie and beachwear for women, men, and children. The company expanded with the creation of the Intimissimi and Tezenis brands. By 2014, Calzedonia Group had expanded to 3,200 stores in 29 countries, with more than 32,000 employees.

Material challenges

The fast-moving nature of the fashion industry and the company’s rapid growth meant that business operations had outgrown the capabilities of its main data centre.

Its expanding business was driving operational and process requirements whilst systems inefficiencies were increasing infrastructure vulnerabilities.

All retail businesses depend upon the integrity, security, and consistent operations of their network infrastructure to manage and replenish inventory, take customer orders, deliver products to its stores and customers efficiently and process financial transactions.

The high operational costs, system reliability and lack of space around the IT systems were having a significant impact on its growth plans.

The challenges for the data centre management were to improve uptime and system reliability, implement more effective thermal management and improve space utilisation.

With these enhancements the business would achieve the consistently high network performance required to meet market needs and e-commerce demands.Using the latest technologies would also provide cost reductions and improve services while enabling business innovation and maintaining its competitiveness.

The company chose to construct a new redundant data centre at its headquarters. This approach would provide the ground-up design, infrastructure flexibility and capacity to meet its data centre requirements now and in the future.

This would further enhance communication to its customers, delivering larger amounts of data quickly andconsistently. It would also allow it to maintain a competitive edge by integrating sustainability throughout the infrastructure, while providing migration and future-ready capabilities to keep the company at the forefront of technological advancements required in today’s fashion market.

Stitching the solution together

Having worked together on a previous project, the data centre management recognised the infrastructure expertise and range of solutions that Panduit offered.

Fasternet, a Panduit ONESM Silver Partner, was chosen for the project due to its consulting, implementation, and management capabilities.

In recent projects, the company has worked extensively in cybersecurity and data security on converged systems. Moreover, it continues to improve on the lean approach in its operating procedures, optimising resources, and reducing the timeframe for service delivery to customers.

To address its key requirement of future-proof technology and optimise its business operations, Calzedonia chose Panduit’s integrated data centre solution.

As guaranteed uptime was an essential goal, Panduit SmartZone infrastructure management solutions for power management was implemented.

This included network-enabled intelligent rack PDUs, which ensures safely and efficiently managed distributed power to Calzedonia’s cabinet devices via a single power connector, helping to optimise space within the environment.

Net-Access network and server cabinets were deployed to house Cisco core switches which also enhance thermal efficiency across the technology space. The cabinets provide effective thermal management to ensure optimised equipment operation and increased uptime. The modular design incorporates flexibility, as the retailer adds more cabinets to the system and as network upgrades occur.

Panduit copper and fibre optic cabling comprising the TX6A-SD 10Gig UTP copper cabling system with Matrix Technology, and the HD Flex 2.0 fibre optic cabling system, with pre-terminated cassettes OM4, and PanMPO fibre optic trunk cable, were deployed throughout the data centre.

This provided high-speed data transmission capabilities and high levels of reliability and design flexibility. High-capacity horizontal cable manager and overhead distribution rack provide greater accessibility during installation and maintenance and offers exceptional space utilisation.

“We focus on optimising our operations, transforming IT to be more sustainable and collaborating for an environmentally sustainable world,” said Mr. Fabio Comini, company director, Calzedonia SpA.

“A future-proof, reliable, and scalable solution would provide better value for our IT investments and allow continuous enhancements to our global presence.”

The Panduit integrated data centre solution has ensured Calzedonia achieved its key initiatives including an easy-to-manage network infrastructure with sustainable operations and the capability to expand rapidly over the next 15+ years.

Now the retailer can realise its goal of worldwide expansion of services, locations, and acquisitions.

Calzedonia is delighted with the outcome of the project. According to Mr. Guido Malpeli, facilities manager, Calzedonia SpA, “Panduit’s expertise in data centre solutions, along with the support and project management from Fasternet, has allowed us to optimise performance and achieve a flexible, scalable, highly available data centre.”