FC Barcelona and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have signed an agreement for the football club to deploy HPE GreenLake and Aruba Networks at its new facilities.

Through the agreement, HPE will be the new Espai Barça Official Edge-to-Cloud Partner for the next four seasons, until 30 June 2028.

HPE GreenLake is an Edge-to-cloud service where HPE data center servers and storage are deployed on-premises at Spotify Camp Nou but with cloud capabilities.

Along with deploying its Aruba Networks solution, HPE will give the club secure AI-ready data center solutions. According to HPE, the data center received by FC Barcelona will be equipped with the most advanced distributed services switches, which will improve security.

It's expected that the partnership will enable FC Barcelona to offer personalized services and experiences tailored to its fans. The agreement is part of the sponsorship program associated with the future Spotify Camp Nou.

“The partnership with HPE is a step towards creating a digitally connected and secure environment for Espai Barça,” said Juli Gulu, VP of marketing at FC Barcelona.

"Their extensive experience in connectivity and cloud technologies means we will be able to offer our members, fans, and supporters personalized experiences, thus significantly improving their interaction with the club on match days at Spotify Camp Nou, as well as in the different activities that will be organized at the future ground."

In addition, HPE will deploy a high-speed wireless network in the Spotify Camp Nou for the 100,000 fans in the stadium and plans to, in the future, incorporate private 5G for core applications.

Alfredo Yepez, senior VP and managing director of Latin America and southern Europe at HPE, said: “Technology is integral to the growth and global expansion of sports, as well as to accelerating innovation. HPE is delighted to serve as the Official Edge-to-Cloud Partner of one of the world’s leading football clubs to enhance its visitor and fan experience, providing state-of-the-art technology for Espai Barça and the iconic Spotify Camp Nou.”

Espai Barça is a project that is redeveloping and expanding FC Barcelona facilities, including Spotify Camp Nou, the football club's stadium.

HPE has a similar deployment at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London, UK. Here, the stadium has two HPE GreenLake data centers on site, and also uses Aruba Networking. DCD went on a tour of the stadium in 2023.

HPE began offering GreenLake in 2022, and added HPC and AI to the Edge-to-cloud solution in 2023. New customers this year include engineering company Danfoss, and the US Defense Information Systems Agency.