La resilienza è la ricetta per un intrattenimento senza sosta

In sintesi

Europa-Park Resort è molto più di una semplice destinazione; è un'imponente struttura dedicata a una singola missione: vendere gioia. Situato a Rust, Germania, è il più grande parco a tema del paese e il secondo più grande d'Europa. Gestito dalla famiglia Mack da oltre 50 anni, il resort presenta 20 aree a tema europeo con oltre 100 attrazioni, il parco acquatico Rulantica e il ristorante di alta cucina Eatrenalin.

Ma dietro le montagne russe e la magia si cela un complesso ecosistema digitale. Dal check-in in hotel e dai sistemi di punto vendita fino ai sensori di sicurezza sulle attrazioni, i dati sono la corrente invisibile che alimenta l'esperienza degli ospiti.

Oggi, il team IT offre un'esperienza per gli ospiti senza interruzioni e coinvolgente, con zero tempi di inattività—anche durante guasti accidentali all'alimentazione—così possono concentrarsi sull'innovazione invece che sulla risoluzione dei problemi.

A resilient solution

To achieve true resilience, Europa-Park Resort turned to NetApp. The strategy focused on redundancy, automation, and tiering to balance performance with cost efficiency.

Continuous availability
Central to the solution are NetApp AFF A-Series systems running NetApp MetroCluster^® continuous availability and disaster recovery software. This configuration delivers live, synchronous mirroring across Europa-Park Resort's two primary data centers. It means that if one site goes down—whether due to fire, power loss, or maintenance—the other site can take over instantly with zero data loss.

Data management and security
Running on NetApp ONTAP^® software, the infrastructure gains simplified management and integrated security. This allows the team to handle software updates and maintenance without disrupting operations, a critical capability for a park that operates year-round.

Efficient tiering
To manage costs effectively without sacrificing performance, the team uses NetApp FAS systems for capacity storage. They implemented a tiered storage strategy where critical data, like the 505 VMs, resides on high-performance flash storage, while colder data and snapshots are automatically tiered to more cost-effective hybrid flash storage.

Results

The actual test of the new infrastructure came not during a disaster, but during routine maintenance.

“We did some work on our data center and took one side offline,” Höck recalls. In a traditional setup, this would have been a catastrophic outage affecting ticketing, hotels, and park operations.

Instead? Silence.

“Instantly, the other side took over. We didn’t have any downtime,” says Höck. “One side of the data center went down, and no one noticed. We tested it by accident, but it proved reliable. No problems. We’re always on.”

Key outcomes:

• 100% uptime: Ticketing, hotel check-in, and entertainment systems remain responsive even during high-demand periods or infrastructure failures.
• Peace of mind: With built-in redundancy and ransomware protection, the IT team spends less time fighting fires and more time supporting park expansion.
• Invisible IT: The ultimate goal was achieved. Guests enjoy a smooth experience without ever realizing the complex technology supporting their visit.

What’s next?

For Europa-Park Resort, the partnership with NetApp has transformed IT from a potential vulnerability into a silent powerhouse. By securing their data infrastructure, they have secured the magic of the guest experience.

Looking forward, the park is exploring a “cloud-smart” evolution, moving web-facing applications to the cloud while keeping mission-critical data securely on-premises. As they expand with new attractions and potential AR/VR experiences, they have the scalable foundation to handle the data explosion that comes with modern entertainment.

“We sell joy,” Höck says. “We sell entertainment, so everybody likes to go home and think, ‘Wow, that was great. I’d like to come again.’ Thanks to NetApp, the technology never gets in the way of that feeling.”