Atos and EMC have jointly delivered the cloud IT infrastructure that will be used for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games and beyond.
The new cloud IT infrastructure powered by EMC, Atos’ strategic partner, will be used to test and run securely the IT applications used to distribute the results to the world’s media.
Also, the infrastructure will support the core planning systems that are used to recruit volunteers, support workforce management, manage the competition schedule and process accreditations for athletes, media and the wider Olympic group.
The new cloud infrastructure was built using the Canopy Enterprise Private Cloud and VCE’s Vblock System — a converged infrastructure solution that can support other businesses on their journey to the cloud.
The infrastructure was first put to use last August to test the competition schedule and the workforce management systems that will be used by the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee from the end of this year.
Last month, in September, the cloud capacity escalated upwards for a limited period to perform technical testing and prove that the solution can support the expected demand through the project, and after that escalated down to support the limited production needs at the early stages of the project.
By the time the Volunteer Portal for PyeongChang Games goes operational around two years before the Games, capacity and bandwidth of the cloud will be increased again to cover the high level of demand for thousands of volunteer requests being addressed in a very short period.
“The delivery of the secure cloud, IT infrastructure to support all Olympic Games from 2018 is a major milestone in our digital transformation,” said Jean-Benoît Gauthier at the IOC. “Cloud is a perfect fit for the Olympic Games.”
Patrick Adiba, group chief commercial officer at Atos, said cloud takes away the need to rebuild an entire infrastructure for each of the Games, which is both timely and costly.
Adiba said the solution also provides flexibility — scaling up or down to meet demand — considering that the Olympics does not need to operate at full capacity all the time.