Sun Microsystems of Canada will be responsible for managing the IT infrastructure supporting the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) in Vancouver, Canada. The assignment entails connecting 15 networked venues and three datacenters, running multiple business applications and an integration test lab, and keeping 10,000 media outlets up to date with over 100 TB of data. This technology infrastructure will handle daily operations as well as share real-time data with billions worldwide.

Given the high stakes involved with this venture, the choice of Sun Microsystems is explained by Barry Caswell, Director of IT Operations and Security at Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, who says, "With Sun, we have a trusted partner that can evaluate our architecture and make changes to improve performance and service-level agreements. It's really about collaborating and overlaying Sun's expertise in server and storage platforms over what we want to achieve."

Caswell elaborates on the choice, adding that, "As your focus narrows on the Games, it's all about timing, scoring, and results — nothing else matters. The most important thing we can deliver during the Olympic Games is that critical supply chain of information supported by Sun server and storage infrastructure.”

Choosing the Hardware

VANOC selected Sun Canada because of the reliability of its UNIX-based servers and its track record in supporting major sporting organizations such as the National Hockey League and past Games, including NBCOlympics.com for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing and the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

VANOC deployed a combination of 125 Sun SPARC Enterprise and 475 Sun Fire AMD and Intel-based x64 servers and Sun StorageTek storage products for the core systems that will facilitate the 2010 Winter Games. One key solution — the Vancouver 2010 Information Diffusion System (IDS) developed by Atos Origin, the Worldwide IT Partner of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games — will run on energy-efficient Sun SPARC Enterprise servers, including the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 server featuring CoolThreads technology and the Solaris 10 Operating System. IDS will be used to compile and distribute real-time data such as scoring and timing results to athletes, officials, commentators, and media.

The various operations this hardware is designed to support include distributing information collected from sensors on a downhill ski run through Sun servers for worldwide distribution over the Internet. In addition, systems based on Sun Fire X4100 servers and the Windows operating system will be used to manage attendee accreditation, calendars, and other Core Games Management Systems developed by Atos Origin, as well as to handle VANOC's daily business operations. The Sun SPARC Enterprise and Sun Fire x64 servers and Sun StorageTek storage products for mission-critical IT systems that VANOC implemented will directly affect how the world experiences the 2010 Winter Games. This infrastructure was chosen with the assurance that it would achieve a reliable end-to-end infrastructure, gain an energy-efficient solution, and control costs, all the while ensuring support for mission-critical systems; meeting tight deployment deadlines; reducing the number of servers needed by 30%; and implementing energy-efficient infrastructure.

Specifics of the Sun Solution include these products and services:

• Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 Server
• Sun Fire X4100 Server
• Sun StorageTek 2540 Array
• Sun StorageTek SL500 Modular Library System
• Solaris Cluster 3.2
• Sun Java System Products
• Sun StorageTek QFS Software
• Sun ECO Services Suite
• Sun On Site Services
• Sun Customer Ready Program

Software, Services, Deployment Timetable

VANOC has also opted for Sun software. In addition to the Solaris Operating System, VANOC is using Solaris Cluster 3.2 software to ensure server availability, and it deployed Sun StorageTek QFS software to handle data management across its heterogeneous network. VANOC is also running Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 and Sun Java System Directory Server 6 to support online services.

The build-out began in September 2007 and continued in stages until completed in July 2009. Atos Origin expects to finish system tests well in advance of the Games in February 2010. During the Games, Sun Professional Services and Atos Origin will work together with all the other Technology Partners in the Technology Operation Center (TOC) to support overall Games operations. The TOC houses systems management and monitoring equipment.

Sun Professional Services played a role by providing expertise in storage, performance, and security. SunSpectrum services is also providing ongoing support. By taking advantage of Sun Professional Services and the Sun Customer Ready Program to simplify deployment with factory-integrated systems, VANOC has been able to meet aggressive deadlines and cut costs. VANOC also saved by consolidating applications and reducing the number of servers it would need by approximately 30%, and expects to realize ongoing savings with the energy-efficient Sun systems.

More Information

The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games VANOC)

Sun of Canada Named Network Server Supplier to 2010 Olympic Winter Games

Sun Powers NBCOlympics.com

Sun Microsystems Joins Olympics Team [...read more...]

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