What does it take to deliver reliable connectivity to a floating city carrying thousands of guests across the world's oceans?
Recorded at Cisco Live, this episode features Diogo Almeida, Head of IT Infrastructure at AIDA Cruises, and Amine Belhad, IT Network Architect at AIDA Cruises. Together, they share what happens behind the scenes to keep one of Europe's leading cruise fleets connected while supporting everything from guest services and entertainment to restaurants, healthcare facilities, security systems, and operational technology.
Most travelers think of a cruise ship as a vacation destination. The reality is far more complex. Each vessel operates like a self-contained city at sea, complete with data centers, wireless networks, hospitality systems, broadcast infrastructure, retail operations, medical facilities, and connectivity requirements that extend far beyond the ship itself.
During our conversation, Diogo and Amine explained how guest expectations have evolved dramatically in recent years. Travelers now expect the same digital experiences they enjoy at home, whether that's streaming content, staying connected with family, accessing onboard services through mobile applications, or remaining productive while traveling. Meeting those expectations requires a resilient technology foundation capable of operating in one of the most challenging environments imaginable.
We discuss the architecture supporting AIDA's fleet, the role of automation in managing complex environments, and how standardization has helped improve operational consistency across multiple ships. The conversation also explores how connectivity supports both guest experiences and business operations, from check-in processes and shore excursions to entertainment systems and day-to-day vessel management.
Looking ahead, we examine how AI, predictive analytics, and greater visibility into infrastructure performance could help identify issues before they impact guests or crew. As digital services become increasingly important to the cruise experience, proactive operations are becoming just as important as connectivity itself.
What stood out throughout this discussion was the scale of what happens behind the scenes. Most passengers never see the technology supporting their vacation, but it plays a role in almost every aspect of their experience from the moment they arrive at the terminal until they return home.
As customer expectations continue to rise, how can organizations deliver increasingly connected experiences while operating in environments where reliability matters more than ever?
[00:00:03] When most of us think about cruise ships, I suspect that we collectively think about ocean views, great food, entertainment and an opportunity to disconnect from everyday life. But what we seldom think about is the extraordinary amount of technology that is required to make that experience possible. Because today's cruise ships are effectively floating cities.
[00:00:28] They have restaurants, theatres, retail stores, healthcare facilities, communications networks and thousands of guests and crew members who all expect the exact same digital experiences that they enjoy on land. The difference of course is that these cities are constantly moving between countries, ports and satellite networks while crossing some of the most remote parts of the planet.
[00:00:54] So today I sat down with the head of IT infrastructure and network architect at AIDA Cruises. And together we discussed what it takes to deliver reliable connectivity across a fleet of 11 ships, supporting thousands of crew members that are living on board. And most impressive, maintaining more than 99% uptime in one of the most challenging environments that you can imagine.
[00:01:19] And we'll also talk about the growing role of AI, the future of predictive operations at sea and why technology has become such an important part of the modern cruise experience. Even when passengers don't even notice it's there. But enough scene setting for me. Let me introduce you to my guests right now. Thank you for joining me here at Cisco Live. I've got not one but two guests joining me on the show floor here. Can you tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do? Thank you for having us here. My name is Diogo Almeida.
[00:01:49] I'm the head of IT infrastructure on AIDA Cruises. I'm responsible for the network, server environment, cloud and connectivity on board our 11 floating cities. Thank you for having us. So my name is Amin. I'm working for AIDA since three years as a network architect. So my responsibility is bringing new technologies, design them and make sure that they are when integrated with our system. And you mentioned a moment ago about floating cities.
[00:02:18] And I think most people think of a cruise ship as a vacation destination. But from a technology perspective, it sounds more like you said, a floating city. So can you tell or help the listeners understand the scale and the complexity of the digital infrastructure required to support modern cruise operations that they don't get to see? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:02:38] So as you said, when you go to the ship, you don't know behind the scene how is the data center, how are the technology from connectivity, from how we can open your door and everything what we have behind the scene. So we do have most of the ships to data center that we have a lot of access point, access switches, distribution switches. So it's a really huge, huge, huge technology working in the background.
[00:03:06] So to have smooth connectivity and perfect holidays for the customer. So we do have data center in each fire zone that it makes sure if there is anything in that fire zone, the other one can still working separated. Each data center, they are working almost, we can say, active, passive and the infrastructure perspective.
[00:03:34] And Diogo, I think for the server part, you can tell us more about it.
[00:04:08] Yeah. There are short-sight excursions. The tablets need to connect to the ship to check in the guests on the bus. We have our bicycle renting system that they can unlock and unlock the bicycle with a board card. So there is a lot of IT behind that. The guests don't see it, but if we have some challenges or some incidents, they will feel it.
[00:04:35] And speaking of guests, I would imagine that their expectations have changed dramatically over the last, what, five to ten years alone. So I would imagine that travelers expect the same digital experiences at sea that they enjoy in their home. So how has that shift influenced the way you think about connectivity and technology across its fleets? Because as guests, they just expect to be connected all the time still, even though it's a lot trickier. They don't care about that, right?
[00:05:02] So the expectation of the guests as being connected as at home, mainly the internet. And for that, we use three, four different internet providers. We try using new technologies and AI to give the best quality of experience to the guests. But still, our bandwidth is very limited. We are in the middle of the sea. It's not the same thing as a cable connected at home.
[00:05:28] And they expect to be able to stream, to open a website with the same answering time, the same latency as at home. With some investments made in SD1 and the quality of experience tools with AI on top, we are able to give almost a similar experience as at home. On the sea days, the quality goes a little bit down because we have all the guests at the same time using the same reduced bandwidth.
[00:05:59] There are limitations, the number of satellites, the number of users, the number of ships using the same technology. But we improve a lot. The bandwidth in the last four years, it went more than 200 times what we had before. And the guests are quite happy. One of the things for the experience at home, we were the first cruise brand deploying open roaming at sea.
[00:06:25] And as you go home and you are immediately connected to your Wi-Fi because the password is already stored on your laptop or on your smartphone. Now with open roaming, if you have the IDA app, it doesn't matter if you are in our offices or our shop on short side or any of our vessels. You enter the terminal, you enter the ship and you are immediately connected to the internet. You don't need to select any Wi-Fi. You don't need to go on the settings.
[00:06:54] You just go inside and you are connected. The same as here on Cisco Live. When you install the app and you ask if you want to use the wireless LAN, we have the same thing. And plus, we give 4.5 million free hotspots around the world. Also with open roaming, where the guest goes in a bus terminal, airport, some restaurants, supermarkets or shopping malls. And they, with IDA app, leverage that open roaming connection. And they have also internet there. Wow, that's incredibly cool.
[00:07:23] And from an IT point of view, cruise ships operate in one of the most challenging environments imaginable, constantly moving between countries, ports and indeed networks. So what are some of the unique challenges that people on land rarely consider when it comes to maintaining reliable connectivity at sea? From that guest point of view, that they're probably blissfully unaware of. Yeah, that's a very, very valid question. Because back in the days, the only option that we had is VSAT.
[00:07:52] So in that days, I mean, VSAT was not as today that the coverage is almost worldwide. So we see those days, I mean, the satellite, the SATCOM is expand its coverage almost everywhere. Very rare that we have blind spots. But even if we do, we have a starting now that we can ensure almost over 99% of connectivity online customers.
[00:08:19] So really very, very rare when we have cases that both providers, they are offline. But most of the time, that's over 99% is online. That's really very great. And a C with over 99% SLA. I'm glad you mentioned that figure there, because one of the things that immediately stood out to me was this achievement of 99% uptime across your vessels. Why is resilience so important to a cruise environment?
[00:08:50] And what impact does reliable connectivity have on both the guest experience and indeed your own day-to-day operations behind the scenes? So depending on the class of our vessels, we have between two to five ITs living on the ship, 24 by 7, that make the level 1 support. Everything else, level 2, level 3, it's made from shore site or directly by our team on level 3.
[00:09:17] And we have a 24 by 7 service for triage and level 2. But we are far away from the ship. And if the ship is sailing in a sea day, if it's crossing the Atlantic, it's not possible for us to go on the ship to sort out anything. For that, we rely on other technologies. We have console servers for every important device that even if the device fails on the network connectivity,
[00:09:44] we can, via console port, reach out the device to troubleshoot and recover it. But the investment made in the latest Cisco models, new network design, even replacing cabling in the data centers during our dry docks to new cabling, makes our network very stable. So that's 99.9% that we achieved in the last two years,
[00:10:10] and more than 80% reduction in our P1 incidents, makes our ships very safe and also able to provide the best vacation experience to our guests. A big thank you to Denodo for helping me make more than 60 monthly interviews possible across the Tech Talks network. And as businesses move from Gen.AI to Agentic.AI, trusted data becomes everything.
[00:10:39] Everything from Gen.AI to Agentic.AI, Denodo is helping organizations build intelligent, secure, and scalable AI solutions with data access, governance, and explainable results. So build AI that you can trust and do it with Denodo. And you can learn more by simply visiting denodo.com. And we're talking a lot here about the guest experience, and technology often gets discussed through the lens of the guests,
[00:11:09] but crews also rely heavily on digital services too. How has modernization improved the experience for the employees who live and work on board for such extended periods too? I think one of the biggest improvements in the last two years was the capability to provide them voice and video calls 99.9% of the time where they can reach out to the families.
[00:11:36] Some crew members are two to eight months on the ship and they want to see the kids, to see the wife, to speak, to see the parents. And I think that was a good improvement. It was not only on the connectivity side, the bandwidth that we are acquiring and the stability of it, but also investments that were made on the wireless, on the ships. So we have I-5-6 and I-5-6C. Most of the ships we are running in our older ships
[00:12:05] on the program called Evolution. We are adding cabin access points all over the ship so the crew can have very good I-5 inside their cabins. So in their private moments, they can talk freely with their families. And if we were to look ahead, I mean, you're exploring technologies such as Cisco IQ, AI pods, Thousand Eyes, and now, of course, Argentic AI. Where do you see AI delivering the greatest value inside a cruise operation,
[00:12:35] both for the guests and behind the scenes for the teams? So honestly speaking, at the moment now, AI, I think it's not ready for the maritime. Because for the AI, you need really good computing and bandwidth and so on. But I believe this is something that is coming very soon. As I said, maybe three, four years ago, it's very challenging to say
[00:13:03] I have over 99% of network online and connectivity uptime. And as I said, it was really something crazy to achieve this. But I believe the AI is coming very, very soon to the maritime. I believe that it's already, there are ongoing discussion about this, about the AI, right, for the maritime. But if something is, you can see it in the enterprise, I'm sure about it, this technology will come to the maritime. Why I'm saying this?
[00:13:33] Because also people, they are thinking when you go to the cruise ship, that the technology is not really like the enterprise, right? But as you said, we have a lot of technology. You don't find them even in enterprise. It's the latest technology, like Thousand Eyes we are using for, and we have also a lot, another network monitoring system we are using for, like, Cisco Catalyst Center. And so, the latest technology we are using.
[00:14:01] So I believe also AI is coming very soon to the maritime. And we're also seeing a growing shift from reactive IT to predictive operations. What does that look like in practice on board a cruise ship? And how close are we to a future where systems can identify and address issues before passengers even notice that there's a problem and report that there's a problem? We are making a transformation in our ships.
[00:14:26] The old IT officer, as it was known, is becoming an operational center with dashboards, live screens. But I think it's where AI will come to make all that proactive monitoring, identify an issue that is not yet an incident, but can become one and alert us to that. And it's something very important due to the number of resources we have on the ship
[00:14:55] and the distance we are from our ship. The proactive monitoring, I think, is one of our first bets on AI, at least on IT, but also enabling our business in a lot of other cases. Location-based services, occupancy of restaurants, how a line on the bar is acting, if there is a towel on the floor or a glass,
[00:15:24] is something that we are taking a look paired with Meraki and the AI capabilities and computing capabilities on the Meraki cameras is something we are looking at it also. And what excites you about the future, where we're heading and the opportunities that could be waiting on the horizon? There's so much going on here and it's difficult to predict the future, but is there anything in particular that excites you that you're thinking about? Not so long in the future.
[00:15:54] What excites me is our program that we are running, our old network concept that we call the Network 2.0. We finished six ships. Till now we are trying to finish the other 11. We have two new builds coming, 29 and 2030, or 2030 and 2031, that will have a lot more technology than what we have today. So that is something that is pushing us forward.
[00:16:23] That is also why we come to Cisco Live. Besides seeing the new things from Cisco Live, see the other partners on the world of solutions, what is new, what we can do better to give the best experience possible to our guests. So in the end, everything we do is so our guests end their vacation with a very good smile and already thinking or already have booked during the current cruise the next one.
[00:16:53] Love it. And for anybody listening that maybe they would like to take a cruise and feel what some of the tech benefits for themselves, maybe there are techie that would like to see how it works at the seas. Where would you like me to point everyone listening? You can point to Aida.dee. And there they can see everything we have. All the options, all the cruise around the world, world cruises, festival cruises, everything that you want is there. Awesome. Well, I'll include links to that, as well as both of your LinkedIn.
[00:17:22] So we'll see if anybody comments there and continues this conversation. But just thank you for sharing your story today. Really appreciate your time. Thank you very much for listening to us. Yeah, thank you for having us. And thank you, Diogo. Thank you, everyone. Wow. Listening to my guest today, I think that sheer scale of what happens behind the scenes is incredibly impressive. From family video calls and seamless check-ins at ports and supporting onboard healthcare services,
[00:17:52] managing entertainment systems, providing internet access in the middle of the ocean, I think it proves that technology now touches almost every aspect of the cruise experience. And I was also fascinated by just how quickly expectations are changing. Passengers no longer compare their onboard experience with other cruise lines. They compare it with their home broadband, their favourite apps, and the connected experiences that they have every day.
[00:18:19] And delivering this kind of level of service while sailing across oceans is a challenge that most of us never stop to consider. And I think possibly the most interesting takeaway from the chat today was the shift from reactive operations to predictive ones. That vision of shared systems identifying issues before passengers notice them, combined with AI-powered monitoring, intelligent infrastructure. I think all these things offer a glimpse into
[00:18:48] how the next generation of cruise operations could work. And although the technology is undoubtedly impressive here, it's the objective that remains refreshingly simple. Help guests enjoy an unforgettable vacation and ensure that the crew members are able to stay connected to people who matter most to them. But as always, love to hear your thoughts. What is the most surprising technology that you've encountered while travelling? What worked? What didn't work? I'd love to hear it.
[00:19:19] techtalksnetwork.com You can send me an audio message, a DM, connect with me on LinkedIn, work with me, whatever it is. Just let me know. But thank you for listening today. I'll be back again tomorrow with another conversation. And hopefully, I'll get to speak with you all again then. Bye for now. Bye for now.