The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association (NBA) team. To improve performance during the regular season and post-season, the organization invested in the Red Auerbach Center, a 77,000 square foot practice facility housing two basketball courts with seating for audiences near 200, along with state-of-the-art media and sports medicine rooms. The team's technology is led by Vice President and CTO Jay Wessland and his IT team, who have worked with Thrive for more than 14 years.

To increase performance during the regular season and post-season, the Boston Celtics invested in a high-grade practice facility, the Red Auerbach Center. The 77,000 square foot building houses two basketball courts with seating for audiences near 200, plus state-of-the-art media and sports medicine rooms, each with its own technology demands.

The Celtics and Thrive had to ensure the facility's IT infrastructure could support every function of the space, remain secure and perform at peak efficiency, all against a stringent grand opening deadline. The media room required complete networking and security, and the health center had to meet strict compliance requirements.

The task was large and the deadline fixed. Vice President and CTO Jay Wessland and his IT team needed a partner able to plan, engineer and implement a hosted environment for a multifaceted facility while the team stayed focused on the day-to-day technology of a professional sports organization.

Thrive's consulting and project management teams partnered with Jay Wessland and the Celtics' IT team to create a strategic security plan and a roadmap for implementing the center's hosted environment. The plan addressed the networking and security needs of the media room and the compliance requirements of the health center alongside the general infrastructure for the building.

The solutions included a business continuity plan powered by Veeam, fully managed Meraki networking infrastructure and the implementation of a Microsoft Office 365 environment. The project took numerous hours of careful assessment, engineering and implementation, and was completed in time for the grand opening on June 19, 2018.

Since the opening, Thrive has continued to operate the environment as a fully managed service, providing 24x7 NextGen Managed Services spanning cloud, cybersecurity and disaster recovery. That ongoing coverage lets the Celtics' IT team focus on the daily operational needs that come with managing the technology of a professional sports team, while the Red Auerbach Center stays equipped to handle the demands of its multifaceted use.

• Facility IT infrastructure delivered in time for the grand opening on June 19, 2018, despite the project's complexity
• Fully managed Meraki networking secures the 77,000 square foot facility, including the media room
• Business continuity plan powered by Veeam protects the center's hosted environment
• Microsoft Office 365 environment implemented for the organization
• Facility has stayed fully operational and secure since opening, backed by 24x7 NextGen Managed Services
• Celtics' IT team is free to focus on the unique daily needs of a professional sports organization