Cleveland Guardians Gain Competitive Advantage by Selecting Windstream

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.— (BUSINESS WIRE) — Windstream Enterprise (WE), a leading IT managed services provider, has been selected by the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise Cleveland Guardians for its managed software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) services to achieve a dedicated and simplified cloud network connection. Windstream’s services bolster their IT performance, so it can use today’s data-intensive sports applications without latency or interruption, giving the team and its faithful fans, a competitive advantage in the MLB.

Guardians’ front office staff, coaches, scouts and players are dispersed among eight locations, including Progressive Field and their affiliated minor league team stadiums. Under their previous network, limited bandwidth was disrupting the team’s ability to disseminate real-time information such as players’ statistics, team performance metrics and videos. That is because older, legacy networks don’t offer the flexibility or rapidly scalable capacity for organizations to support cloud applications that need to be accessible anytime, anywhere.

With Windstream’s award-winning SD-WAN and a dedicated connection to the Google Cloud Platform, the provider was able to ensure the Guardians received secure, uninterrupted access to its critical network and cloud-based resources. Not only can the team communicate more readily, but the advanced network also provides the backbone for game-day connectivity, radio and press broadcasters, and stadium applications like ticketing, hospitality and scoreboard management. As a result, the franchise has found a more seamless and proactive way to operate their digital environment.

“Windstream Enterprise’s SD-WAN allowed for a more efficient and cost-effective way to manage the things that we were previously managing,” said Whitney Kuszmaul, senior director of infrastructure and operations, Cleveland Guardians. “It gives us more flexibility in routing traffic and in synching data to and from various locations, and it even enables us to onboard new services without having to adapt one particular site or another.”

Critical to the Guardians’ decision to replace their cumbersome network with Windstream’s SD-WAN and Cloud Connect was the provider’s WE Connect portal and network management services. WE Connect offers a unified digital experience, making it simple for the team personnel to directly liaison with their dedicated Windstream experts who are fully managing the network and proactively resolving issues before they become headaches for the internal staff. Team resources are then freed-up to focus on innovations like advanced baseball applications and other sports technologies.

“What really sold the SD-WAN solution was the ability to bring everything into a centralized portal,” continued Kuszmaul. “The Windstream Enterprise support team has been top-notch – the best service providers we have ever worked with.”

According to Research and Markets, the sports analytics market is expected to grow to over $9 billion in 2030, as teams use everything from big data analysis to identify top prospects, to AI for tracking trends in ball movement and creating video highlights for player study. As teams expand this capability with new tools and technologies, they will require more network connectivity, and solutions ranging from cybersecurity to managed IT services.

“America’s favorite pastime is data science-based as much as talent-based, and in today’s competitive environment, with millions of dollars and fan expectations at stake, sports teams need lightning-fast connectivity, reliability and support for that competitive edge,” said Mike Flannery, president, Windstream Enterprise. “The Guardians are hitting a home run with Windstream solutions, and we’re thrilled about this new partnership.”

To learn more about cloud-optimized connectivity solutions from Windstream, please visit windstreamenterprise.com.

ABOUT WINDSTREAM:

Windstream Enterprise drives business and government agency transformation across the U.S. through managed cloud communications, networking and security services. Windstream Enterprise is one of three brands managed by Windstream. The company’s quality-first approach connects customers to new opportunities and possibilities by delivering a full suite of advanced communications services. Windstream also offers fiber-based broadband to residential and small business customers in 18 states as well as customized wavelength and dark fiber solutions to carriers, content providers and hyperscalers in the U.S. and Canada. Windstream is a privately held company headquartered in Little Rock, Ark. Additional information about Windstream Enterprise is available at windstreamenterprise.com or windstream.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at @Windstream.

CLEVELAND GUARDIANS:

The Cleveland Guardians Baseball Club, established in 1901 as one of the four Charter members of the American League, is an organization striving to unite and inspire the City of Cleveland with the power of team. The Guardians organization has provided superior customer service and entertainment to over 60 million fans at Progressive Field since the gates opened in 1994.