IBM and French Tennis Federation team up to create infrastructure

IBM and the French Tennis Federation (FFT) have collaborated to design an integrated, automated and virtualised infrastructure for the official Website of the French Open Championships to handle increased year-to-year Web traffic.

New intelligence generated through technologies such as sensors on the court that calculate serve speed, coupled with real time data analytics, will offer fans an opportunity to track matches, understand the momentum of the matches, customise the information flow so they can track the performances of their favorite players and generate in-depth match analyses.

There are several new features available to as part of this Dynamic Infrastructure.

•   Visual Match will help fans analyse matches and highlight player
techniques.

•   Your comments will allow fans to post comments on the matches and
chat with other fans around the world or locally.

•   My players allows fans to customise the Website with five of their
favorite players to follow their performance, scores, related information and comments.

• SlamTracker allows fans to see selected players and track scores and matches. This feature, launched in 2008, has been enhanced this year with new statistics options.

These features will be available in English, French and Spanish.

“We are continually looking for ways to improve our viewer experience, whether at the match venues or for those who track the tournament online.  This year we are able to offer a wide range of innovative services for our online viewers that will allow them to customise their Websites, share their experiences, track their favorite players and matches, and involve themselves in the tournament more closely.  All of this is powered by the integrated, automated, intelligent dynamic infrastructure designed by IBM.” says Alex Loth, Roland-Garros’ CIO

IBM also implemented a Storage Area Network (SAN), extending the advantages of virtualisation across storage, security and the network, in addition to the servers at the data centers. IBM Director Active Energy Manager allows for monitoring of energy usage and alteration of the CPU clock speed during low traffic times.

IBM’s project manager, John Kent, said, “Virtualisation allowed us to design a single, integrated solution for Roland Garros that allows both monitoring and management of the infrastructure. This allows for reduction of inefficiencies, enhanced compliance with security policies, maximised intrusion prevention due to multi-layered protection, all with a more energy efficient infrastructure for the French Open Website