Writing History: Atos at the Olympic Games

The Nanjing Youth Olympic Games is the second Youth Olympic Games that Atos is involved in but its track record as a key technology provider for the Olympic Movement since 1989 is second to none. For over 20 years, we have been working with the world’s most challenging customer setting up operations to fulfil an IT project unlike any other. According to Patrick Adiba, Head of The Major Events Business Unit and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Atos' contract with the IOC is the "largest IT sports-related contract in the world, and its requirements and challenges are beyond that of most organizations."

The enormity and scope of creating an IT management system and infrastructure for the Olympic Games presents a host of unique challenges. At every Games Atos executes a carefully honed strategy based on years of experience in delivering comprehensive IT services for major global sporting events. The Nanjing YOG is no exception. Recognized as a game changer on and off the field, Atos is set to transform this Games and others to come.  

Changing the Game since 2002

2002
Atos’ first Games as Worldwide Information Technology (IT) Partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). We deployed a team in North America for the IT management of the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Throughout the 17 days of events and ceremonies, our IT systems and technology team delivered a personal best. We used knowledge transfer from previous Games to build a stable, secure IT platform, and we developed processes and applications that serve as the building blocks of future information technology, reports, archives and shared sports data for the next Olympic Games.

2004
Atos again announced the successful completion of IT operations for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. During the 16 days of competition, more than five million security alerts to the Games IT systems were recorded, of which just 425 were serious and 20 critical. Intrusions included accredited people attempting to disconnect INFO 2004, the Olympic Games intranet that provided results, schedule and athlete information, in order to connect personal laptops to the Internet. The IT team was able to respond fast to all the critical alerts and prevent unauthorized access.

2006
As the lead systems integrator for the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Atos managed a consortium of technology partners and suppliers to install and manage the Olympic IT infrastructure and systems. We operated the Main Technology Center, the Integration Test Lab, the PC Factory, and several data centers used for primary storage and back-up disaster recovery. We also handled the data and information security protecting the entire IT infrastructure of the Games. More than 2,500 athletes competed in 15 disciplines including skiing, ice hockey and snowboarding. Once the Olympic Games began, the Atos-led IT team worked 24/7 to monitor the IT systems and infrastructure across all the Olympic venues. It ensured that all results and athlete information was transmitted accurately and instantly to 10,000 media representatives, as well as the official Torino 2006 website and news and press agencies.

2008
While top-class athletes from around the world broke 43 world records and 132 Olympic records during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, behind the scenes the Atos Business Technologists achieved personal bests of their own. For the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games our IT team processed 70% more accreditations than any Games in history – more than 340,000 in total – and securely processed more than 80% more competition data for media and news agencies worldwide – totaling 1.5 million messages. We also enabled almost 50% more stories to be published each day in English by the Olympic News Service – an average of 500 stories a day – and added 40% more sports disciplines to the Commentator Information System (CIS) to provide broadcasters with more detailed, real-time information. In Beijing, our Business Technologists supported 30% more hits on INFO2008, the intranet for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, collected and filtered more than 12 million IT security events each day to detect any potential security risk for the Olympic Games IT systems. All were resolved, with no impact at all on the Olympic Games. Beijing was also the Games that Atos introduced the Remote Commentator Information System, a new service that enabled commentators to access competition results from the studios in their home countries in a fraction of a second. It also provided background information on the athletes and sports to help them add color to their commentaries. 2008 was also the year Atos became the Official Worldwide IT Partner for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

2010
Atos again successfully fulfilled its mandate to design, integrate, manage and secure the different IT systems needed to manage the Games and to relay competition results to a worldwide audience of more than three billion people. At Vancouver 2010, Atos was recognized for its Games-related sustainability technology innovations and commitment to creating greener Games. VANOC award us a “Sustainability Star” for helping it achieve its sustainability goals.

2012
Atos completed its sixth Olympics as Worldwide IT Partner of the IOC and third Paralympics as partner of the IPC. London 2012 was the most digitally enabled Olympic and Paralympic Games in history, with more people than ever tuning in to watch the events on more devices than ever before. It was the first Olympic Games in history to stream every single minute of the action live. It was also the first time ever at the Summer Games that all 26 Olympic sports, and five Paralympic sports, were added to the Commentator Information System.
For the Paralympics, Atos provided a groundbreaking new video player on the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) website, to integrate live video streaming and results within one single unified platform. It formed part of the IPC’s broadcast strategy to increase viewing opportunities and showcase the sporting excellence of the 4,250 Paralympic athletes at London 2012.

2014
Atos is set to complete its seventh Olympics as Worldwide IT Partner of the IOC and fourth Paralympics as partner of the IPC.