Tangalooma wild dolphin resort

THE appealing frolic of the Tangalooma dolphins is not just the result of sheer fun and games. The allure of the dolphins to hundreds of thousands of tourists each year is a well-planned activity.

Tourists at the Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort in Queensland.

Behind the scenes of the world famous Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort on Queensland's Moreton Island is a robust network populated with VXL thin client technology, offered by Thin Systems.The daily tourist attraction is a part of a highly ordered system and keeping this complex routine running is the extreme reliability of VXL.Robust VXL Itona terminals link the 40 or so staff operating the island resort to their mainland base, some 43 kilometres away in Brisbane.

The former defence outpost and whaling station is now home to an integrated resort playground comprised of 134 motel units, 56 two storey family villas, 96 hotel rooms, 23 houses and 16 luxury beach front apartments.In addition, the resort has a tourism centre, restaurant, bar, resort, retail shop and a function centre - all with the IT infrastructure remotely managed from Brisbane."At Tangalooma we offer a wide range of recreation activities to be organised, booked, scheduled, checked, paid for and audited where applicable,” said the IT expert at Tangalooma, Sean Murdoch.

“It is a sophisticated operation with a substantial database and marketing function, too,.”"The activities clients can enjoy are dolphin, pelican, cormorant and whale watching, sailing, tennis, squash, snorkeling, fishing, scuba, bush-walking, eco-walking, golf-driving, 4WD and even para sailing. It's a full-on experience and a rigorous test for our staff and their operating systems."With limited access to the island - a 75 minute cruise across Moreton Bay from Brisbane - technology reliability is at a premium," he said.

"Of course price and performance are important considerations in any IT purchase, but reliability and on the spot commitment to service are paramount for the smooth running of Tangalooma resort...and the dolphins.""We have purchased dozens of thin client terminals from VXL since 2002. We have kept on buying them, such as the Itona, because VXL is flexible enough to be able to be committed to their customers, even ones with difficult configurations like ours," said Mr Murdoch.

"Other heavyweight tech companies can't match the quality of service that VXL Australia delivers," said Managing Director of VXL Australia, Michael Crocombe. "That is one very good reason why VXL is now number the three global manufacturer of thin client
terminals."

"Naturally, across all our activities, we have a variety of employees using the terminals," said Mr Murdoch. "The VXL thin client technology is ideal to cope with the variation in the computing expertise and experience of the Tangalooma staffers - and from the software security point of view it offers peace of mind.”"The user intervention is minimised. And while the dolphins don't intervene at all, their famous show goes on smoothly each day with the VXL peace of mind behind the scenes."