Making Dreams Come True
Viaggi del Ventaglio has a simple goal: to make
dreams come true. The Milan, Italy-based company offers vacationers
unforgettable experiences in some of the most beautiful places in
the world — Brazil, the Bahamas, Zanzibar, Greece and Sardinia.
Established in 1976, Viaggi del Ventaglio S.p.A. is the holding
company for its four distinctive tour operations, Viaggi del Ventaglio,
Caleidoscopio and Columbus and UTAT. 
Paving the Road to Vacation Success
With 33 holiday resorts and three cruise ships, it's no wonder
more than 541,000 clients look to Viaggi del Ventaglio and its VentaClubs
for a true "Italian style," all-inclusive vacation experience
— great cuisine, a relaxed, informal atmosphere, and prime
accommodations in serene surroundings. And one of the keys to its
more than 25 years of success is the company's commitment to technology.
As a cutting-edge company, Viaggi del Ventaglio is always looking
for new, cost-effective, solutions to improve its relationships
with distributors and consumers. And that's why Viaggi del Ventaglio
turned to Tarantella, Inc., for centralized, secure access to its
server-based applications anywhere in the world.
Changing the Face of Travel
Viaggi del Ventaglio sells its services through travel agency
networks, and collaborates with a wide range of suppliers including
airlines, hotel chains, its own resorts, banks, transportation companies,
and food and boutique suppliers. Over the years, Viaggi del Ventaglio
has implemented a growing number of services — such as advanced
online reservation systems — to stay up-to-date and the company
recognizes the deep impact new technologies have had on the tourism
industry.
Moreover, because many of its operations are in far-flung locations,
the company needed a secure, immediate way to connect an executive
in Rome to a company resort manager in Africa, or the chef on a
cruise ship with a provisions supplier on shore. As a result, it
was vital that Viaggi del Ventaglio have access to its software
suite from remote locations without any rewriting, while simultaneously
maintaining the sophisticated user interface of its time-tested
legacy applications.
"The biggest challenges we faced were centralizing and consolidating
both IS and telecommunication services; giving access to applications
in the intranet, extranet and Internet; and managing the application
dissemination worldwide," explains Shyam Sundaresan, Viaggi
del Ventaglio's chief information officer. "We needed to provide
access to legacy applications running on different platforms (Windows,
UNIX and Linux) to any user via the intranet, extranet and Internet
...and frankly we were pretty unsure about deploying complex applications
using an HTML-based interface — especially after a re-write."
A Well-Traveled Solution
To solve the problem, Sundaresan's criteria were quite specific:
he needed a solution that combined platform independence and low
bandwidth requirements with the ability to also configure and maintain
the system using low-level command lines. "We had always viewed
Tarantella with interest," he recalls.
Convinced that Tarantella's experience would provide Viaggi del
Ventaglio with a well-traveled solution, Sundaresan implemented
Tarantella Enterprise 3 software in January 2001. "(We) ran
RISC UNIX applications on server clusters; other applications on
Linux and let the Tarantella software do the distribution to the
rest of the world," Sundaresan says. "The trick was also
to get Windows up and running successfully without using Windows
NT (or 2000 or XP) servers or Microsoft Terminal Services. Our users
run both the Windows desktop and other applications via the Tarantella
server. So using Netraverse's Win4lin Terminal server product and
Codeweaver's Windows-based Crossover for Microsoft Office, we are
able to do practically everything from the Tarantella webtop, anywhere.
To improve the efficiency, we also employ remote boot mechanisms
that allow clients to be added off the shelf. All we need is a minimal
Linux boot to start up the Tarantella client, and presto, all applications
are there magically."
Benefits Felt Around the World
In addition to platform independence and multiple platform access,
what Sundaresan appreciates about the Tarantella software is its
non-intrusive installation. "The production systems are not
touched," he says. "And (it features) powerful administrative
tools and equivalent command-line for automating tasks."
Since implementing their Tarantella solution, Viaggi del Ventaglio
reports numerous benefits, including significantly reduced costs
and remote, secure connections to their global resorts. Thanks to
its centralized IT, Viaggi del Ventaglio controls everything through
the Tarantella server, eliminating the potential for disastrous
security and virus issues. Even better, the company can deploy new
applications immediately using Tarantella, which allows them to
give users the excellent brand of service Viaggi del Ventaglio prides
itself on.
"The time to application deployment has been reduced and
the maintenance is quite simplified," notes Sundaresan. "Our
applications now run in well-managed data centers (as opposed to
the old PC-based distributed models). Our client-induced damages
have been reduced to a minimum, which translates into real robustness.
Additionally, our resorts in Italy no longer run their software
locally. Everything is located at our headquarters in Milan and
the applications are running finally without a glitch. Tarantella
is my survival in the company."
It's managed, secure, multi-platform access
anywhere, anytime. Thanks to Tarantella.
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The Challenge
The company needed to provide access to legacy
applications running on UNIX, Windows and Linux platforms to any
user using the company's intranet, extranet or the Internet.
The Solution
Running its RISC UNIX applications on server clusters
and other applications on Linux servers, Viaggi del Ventaglio used
Tarantella software for global distribution. Additionally, Viaggi
del Ventaglio users run both Windows desktop and other applications
via the Tarantella server.
The Benefits
Multiple benefits include reduced application
deployment time, simplified maintenance, and applications that now
run smoothly in well-managed data centers. As a result, Viaggi del
Ventaglio reports significantly reduced costs and remote, secure
connections to their global resorts.
Customer Testimonial
"The time to application deployment has been reduced
and the maintenance is quite simplified. Our applications now run
in well-managed data centers (as opposed to the old PC-based distributed
models). Our client-induced damages have been reduced to minimum,
which translates into real robustness. ...Tarantella is my survival
in the company."
- Shyam Sundaresan, CIO,
Viaggi del Ventaglio
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