Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium excels at the core of innovative smart city project in Umag, Croatia

Case Study tells how an ancient coastal city has used HPE Storage to enhance civic services thanks to the vision of one inspired IT administrator

August 16, 2022

a woman is seen in a server center with green light reflections all around — According to Ivan Vrkljan, the city's IT systems were centralized, but the most significant bottleneck was storage. Photo credit - HPE

A case study written by Ivan Vrkljan, IT administrator based in the city of Umag on the northern coast of Croatia, has revealed the important role investing in HPE Storage can play in improving access to civic services. At the heart of the project was a pivotal relationship between the city administration, Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium and system integrator Integra Group and distributor M SAN Grupa.

The case study, titled ‘Building A Smarter City by Improving Municipal Services on Croatia’s Northern Coast’ details the steps taken by Ivan to transform services by investing in solutions like HPE Nimble Storage and HPE Infosight.

Ivan writes about the city itself – small, at just over 15,000 inhabitants, founded by the Romans, and every year host to the important ATP Croatian Open tennis tournament. The city administration know that they need to take their services online as much as possible to streamline costs and increase access. However it was clear that an IT bottleneck was delaying service response times with storage and access to data at the root of the problem.

a coastal town with stone buildings and red clay tile roofs — Can a town this old – Umag was first discovered by the Romans – become a modern smart city? The case study examines efforts to do this by upgrading to intelligent connected storage systems as part of an ambitious development strategy. Photo credit – Michal Klajban, Creative Commons

Once the decision had been taken to overhaul the existing, over-capacity IT infrastructure, discussion with the IT partners identified the relevant HPE solutions and the storage upgrade project took less than two months from design to deployment with immediate positive results.

Ivan writes in the case study: “This project is also a testament to everyone at HPE’s Croatian office. I have a great relationship with their team and nothing but praise for their outstanding customer service. Whenever I’ve encountered an issue that I couldn’t fix alone or with help from Integra Group, HPE has stepped up and resolved it within 24 hours.”

According to Ivan there were clear benefits from the use of HPE Nimble Storage:

Accelerated everyday end-user tasks like service requests & report generation, reducing complex tasks to minutes instead of hours
Allowed an increase in self-service options available to citizens online
Allows more web-based applications that exploit integration between the city’s virtual machines, storage array & cloud-based infrastructure
HPE Nimble Storage allows management of the storage system from a single screen

More plans to further develop the IT infrastructure are in hand and will build purposeful links between the various solutions thus increasing the possibilities for further service improvements.

The city of Umag is clearly lucky to have an IT administrator with the strategic vision and intelligence to manage a successful digital transformation initiative. Ivan suggests that using HPE solutions and working with partners like Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium, brings other important premiums. By allowing them to consolidate IT infrastructure management, organizations are in a better position to take advantage of future innovations.

“It truly is the best of both worlds. Thanks to HPE, I have the backing of an international technology giant and personalized service at the regional level,” writes Ivan Vrkljan.

More about Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium and project partners

Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium is part of the Midis Group. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is in partnership with Selectium to help customers and partners accelerate business outcomes. Integra Group d.o.o. is Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium’s Solution Partner, offering services and solutions for IT infrastructure. Integra Group d.o.o. implements business solutions and automate processes in order to increase the efficiency of individual processes. M SAN Grupa is a distributor of HPE products and solutions, and one of the major Croatian IT companies.