Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg – More power with Lenovo servers

Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg – A new heart for Miniatur Wunderland: More power with Lenovo servers.

A miniature world that exceeds superlatives, Hamburg’s Miniatur Wunderland covers a total of 1,610 m² and is one of Germany’s most popular tourist attractions as well as the world’s largest model railway. The increasing number of visitors coupled with the growing number of interactive technologies require an IT infrastructure that is right up to date, therefore, Bechtle configured five powerful Lenovo servers with which Miniatur Wunderland can efficiently process the large volume of data required for 3D applications, videos, images and communications.

Project details.

Services

Server & Storage

Industry

Trade / Service

Manufacturer

Lenovo

Company size

250 – 1,500 employees

Challenge.

The Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg has been delighting men, women and children for over twenty years. Over 400 employees have dedicated themselves to recreating the most intricate of details for the world’s largest model railway—many of which are often overlooked. The IT behind it has to make sure the model railway’s control centre stays up and running, support 3D applications for construction planning and the PoS system, and deliver enough storage and compute capacity to handle the website and the enormous amount of power required for the CAD programs used for technical and track planning. That’s on top of the communication between the terminals at the heart of Miniatur Wunderland, and the videos and images that were pushing data capacities to their absolute limits. More power, enhanced CAD applications and faster communication were, therefore, the three top goals the tourist attraction had in mind as they set out looking for new servers. Its own research made it very clear that it made sense to stick with Lenovo—an IT manufacturer with which the Miniatur Wunderland had been successfully collaborating for years.

We don’t just rely on our IT to power our trains. We also need it to support complex 3D applications, our PoS system and management. Our hunt for new servers led us to Lenovo and Bechtle was by our side to help with exact sizing. Bechtle’s highest partner status with Lenovo enabled to us to get our hands on five new servers that weren't yet on the market. They perfectly meet our needs and have allowed us to take our miniature world to the next level in terms of technology.

Dag Adomeit, Head of IT, Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg GmbH

Solution.

Working together with Bechtle, the environment was precisely sized to determine the exact configuration of the new servers needed to keep pace with the high demands placed on them today and into the future. After comparing other manufacturers, a decision was made to implement five new Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V3 servers, firstly because the entire IT environment was already based on Lenovo and secondly for reasons of value for money. The V3 server configuration chosen includes hardware components such as Intel Xeon Gold processors, high storage capacities, fast SSDs and network interfaces for optimum performance. Future requirements were also taken into account so that the Miniatur Wunderland is ready for whatever the next seven to ten years throws at it.

The Hamburg attraction also had another request, and that was that server procurement should be sustainable, which is why the Lenovo CO2 Offset Service (20 tons) was also added to the order. In this way, the company is supporting new and existing projects in the fields of wind, solar and biomass energy as well as reforestation efforts. That just left one hurdle to overcome—the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V3 servers weren’t yet available to buy at the time the order was placed. However, thanks to Bechtle’s highest Platinum Plus PC Partner Status with Lenovo and based on the previous sizing, the five servers could be pre-ordered and delivered in time for the market launch. The close collaboration between Bechtle, the Miniatur Wunderland and Lenovo allowed for a customised solution that the IT team in Hamburg were then able to install themselves. The new servers deliver much more power meaning that even the most demanding CAD programs and 3D visualisations can be handled with ease.

Business benefits.

The new Lenovo servers delivered by Bechtle have given Hamburg’s Miniatur Wunderland a powerful and future-proof solution that can keep pace with the increasing demands placed on the server infrastructure. Bechtle’s expertise combined with tried-and-tested Lenovo technology and a carefully planned configuration has given the Miniatur Wunderland everything they need to give their visitors a fascinating and technically sophisticated experience. What’s more, the Miniatur Wunderland has been able to reduce it carbon footprint and become even more sustainable thanks to Lenovo’s CO2 Offset Service.