Atos Successfully Completes First Milestone in the Digital Transformation of the IT of the Olympic Games

PARIS, Sept. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Atos, an international leader in digital services and Worldwide IT Partner for the Olympic Games, today announced that the secure, cloud IT infrastructure that will be used for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games and beyond has now been delivered by Canopy — the Atos Cloud — in collaboration with EMC Corporation.

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. It will also 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 Family.

The creation of the new cloud infrastructure is 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 cloud. It represents a major milestone in the digital transformation of IT for the Olympic Games extending the use of cloud to most applications managed by Atos.

The new cloud infrastructure will be first put to use in 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. In September this year, the cloud capacity will escalate upwards for a limited period to perform technical testing proving the solution can support the expected demand through the project, and after this escalate 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.

Jean-Benoît Gauthier at the IOC said: “The delivery of the secure cloud, IT infrastructure to support all Olympic Games from 2018 is a major milestone in our digital transformation.   Cloud is a perfect fit for the Olympic Games and we are delighted to be working with our long-term Worldwide IT Partner on this important project that will benefit all those who participate in the Games — media, athletes and spectators.

Patrick Adiba, Group Chief Commercial Officer, CEO of Major Events at Atos, said: “As is the case for many businesses, the move to the cloud brings many benefits For the Olympic Games. It takes away the need to rebuild an entire infrastructure for each of the Games, which is both timely and costly. It also helps the IT team to react faster and to anticipate new needs and perhaps most importantly, it provides flexibility. As the Olympics does not need to operate at full capacity all the time, a cloud infrastructure will enable computing power to be scaled up and down to meet demand and ensure the best experience for users.”

Marta Sanfeliu Ribot, General Manager for the Olympics at Atos said: “The new cloud IT infrastructure developed through use of innovative EMC technology is helping to transform IT for the Olympic Games and our customers. Working with EMC we are well positioned in our ability to deliver secure cloud IT infrastructure in the digital era.”

Gard Little at IDC, the global provider of market intelligence for the information technology markets, said: “For Atos, successfully delivering on such high-visibility projects will likely lead to other large systems integration projects with complex security requirements. IDC believes that once prospects benchmark their requirements against what Atos has delivered for the Olympics, they will be more likely to consider Atos as a systems integrator and digital services player.” (link to full report)