Two days after the closing ceremony and the foyer of the Olympic IT
Centre is devoid of the physical security checkpoints that
protected the 2002 Winter Olympics Games' digital heartbeat.
Even the security barriers that once protected individual floors at
the Wells Fargo building in Salt Lake City were removed.
These Olympics passed without serious incident, according to IT
SchlumbergerSema the IT services company behind the scenes. There
were no flagrant security breaches or spectacular computer system
failures.
"We didn't have any [problems] that affected the users," said Jason
Durrant, director of systems integration and testing for local
integrator Satel, which was subcontracted to work on the project by
SchlumbergerSema. "Things went better than expected."
SchlumbergerSema staff spent more than 4,500 man-hours before the
games running simulations and field tests at other events under the
watchful eye of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
On the security side, the events of 11 September spurred greater
attention to physical protection of data assets.
Stability and security
With four more Olympic Games to
host over the coming years, beginning with Athens in 2004,
SchlumbergerSema has sought to build a stable and secure IT systems
platform from the ground up that will serve as a platform for the
coming years.
"We really shied away from anything bleeding edge," Durrant said.
That approach saw the company stick to Oracle 8i for its database
needs, for example, rather than adopt the latest release. The IT
infrastructure also included 145 Sun Solaris and iPlanet-based Unix
boxes, two of Sun's StoreEdge storage units, Veritas clustering
software, 4,500 Gateway PCs and notebooks, 145 servers, and 32,000
miles of optical fibre cable. And unlike the days of old when IBM
had its finger in the Olympic pie running the 3270 network
protocol, this network was 100 percent IP based.
SchlumbergerSema continued to build on Java-based software systems
that it initially developed for the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Making up the list of 40 applications and 10 million lines of code
was games management software that catered for transport, staffing,
and athletes' accreditation needs. In addition, the Information
Diffusion System was used to pump games and results data out to the
media, Games officials, and athletes via XML to 1,000 terminals.
And when it comes to XML itself, Durrant said SchlumbergerSema
intends to exploit the protocol beyond simply using it for data
transport at the next games.
This entire operation was run by 3,000 IT staff - half of which
were professional-grade volunteers - who serviced 40 venues
including 10 sporting venues, the Olympic Village, the Main Media
Centre, and non-competition venues.
By Durrant's measure it was an "extremely complex" task to
mastermind, and unlike IBM's famous IT failure at the Sydney 2000
Olympics, when the systems serving the media centre crashed, it was
error free.
Durrant said that when it comes to integration, "typically, we fit
things in." But on the flip side, he said part of the
organisation's role is to work with the IOC to help "evaluate new
technology partners".
And with the likes of Sun as one of the vendors driving
integration-related initiatives, the future will tell as to just
how well the existing technology platform will support these new
partners.
The good news is that the Salt Lake City Games were a raging
success, technology or not.
"We're pleased not to be in the headlines," Durrant said.