Cloud computing marks its presence at the Rio 2016 Olympics

While the Brazilian and world population closely followed the Rio 2016 Olympic games, the IT community turned to a technology that revolutionized the way this event is held: cloud computing. For the first time, the cloud was used in an Olympics. And it was thanks to all its power that the Rio 2016 Olympic Games became the most technological in all of history.

In today's post, we'll talk more about the presence of cloud computing in this great event, which was a success in every way. Be sure to check:

Preparations before the opening of the games

Preparing for the Rio 2016 games was not easy at all, and required a lot of effort from the Information Technology team. For years, scores of IT professionals have planned and orchestrated every initiative. And from the first stages of planning, those responsible for the event already considered the idea of ​​using the cloud to host part of the data and systems that would be used during competitions.

Before the opening of the games, the IT area already had a 100% private and dedicated cloud structure, which was responsible for connecting arenas, athletes, technical teams and fans and processing 'tons' of data in real time. Thanks to her, the team was able to quickly deploy IT resources at the venues where the games were held and prepare the entire infrastructure within the timeframe provided for in the schedule.

The presence of the cloud during the event

The Olympic Games are undoubtedly a gigantic event. Operating your IT is the same as managing the Information Technology department of a company with 200,000 employees, which provides 24×7 service to 4.8 billion customers, in just a few weeks, and which faces several peaks in volume access to their systems. With these numbers, it is not difficult to understand why the cloud was used.

Only with it would the IT area achieve enough agility and flexibility to provision the technology environment according to demand. The event portal, for example, was supported by 300 virtual servers, spread across four data centers on three different continents. Thanks to them, the portal supported 636 page views per second, and the access of 4.7 million simultaneous users.

During the event, 47 million people accessed the site, 91 million consultation sessions were carried out and 470 million pages were visited. Cloud computing also hosted the volunteer portal, the accreditation systems (which managed more than 300,000 credentials) and data on game results. An interesting fact is that Golf alone generated more data than all other sports combined.

As for information security, a much higher amount of hacking activity was recorded than at the 2012 London Olympics. The IT team received more than 40 million security alerts. There were 25 million attacks, which were prevented, and 223 dangerous actions, which were properly mitigated. The good news is that none of these attacks reduced the performance of the technologies.

The legacy left by the cloud at the Rio 2016 Olympics

During games, the cloud and other technologies remained unnoticed by the public. And this was a good thing, as the team always worked with the idea that the success of TI would be complete anonymity. If there had been a problem, the media would quickly spread the news around the world. But as there was no incident, no negative news was released and TI was a success.

And a good part of this success is due to the use of the cloud. The philosophy of the IT team was to do more with less, that is, to optimize resources and work efficiently. Without the cloud, he would not have been able to do this, as the event demands a huge IT infrastructure. This will undoubtedly be the main legacy left by the cloud, which will serve as an example for the next Olympics and also for companies around the world.

And you, what did you think of the participation of cloud computing in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games? Do you think she fulfilled her role well? Write your opinions in the comments field below!

photo credit: marktmcn Olympic dream via photopin (license) [:]