Olympics Techs Keep The Show Running
Source: CNET
While the Winter Olympics have created a whole host of headaches for games organizers, the computing systems used to keep the events up-and-running haven’t been among them.
In fact, things have been pretty quiet inside the low-rise building in east Vancouver where the technology operations are headquartered.
Click here to view The Olympics’ ‘mission control’ (photos)
“In here, our objective is to be bored,” said Atos Origin’s Magnus Alvarsson, one of those in charge of overseeing the Olympics’ IT setup. And from where he sits, just outside the computer-filled room that is the equivalent of NASA’s mission control, things have been just about as uneventful as he could hope for.
Among the biggest problems have been minor things such as people forgetting their password or moving computers from one location to another at a venue. “It shows up on our monitoring that someone is unplugging something,” Alvarsson said.
His team also had to move some wiring at the luge site when the course was rerouted after the death of a Georgian athlete.
“They moved the start point a little,” he said. “We had to re do a little bit of cabling.”
Although the Games are still just a few days old and workers continue to monitor things, Alvarsson said his thoughts are starting to turn to the process of taking out the massive amounts of computing and networking gear installed at spots throughout Vancouver and Whistler.
“We know that the solution we put in place works,” he said. “Now it has to be something very unforeseen like an outside agent or a power outage for there to be a technology issue.”
In the Back Up Category
It’s one thing to have everything on the ground, that is technology for the visitors attending the Olympic games, to run smoothly. You don’t want to hear about things like faulty ticket sales or credit card processing errors that keep visitors’ tickets from being validated. These things make visitors angry.
But from the inside out, running the Olympic games events has got to be the tech challenge of a lifetime. Where else will you find yourself, as a tech worker, with more managed security services issues to possibly contend with should the systems fail due to say a blizzard or an unexpected outage of some kind? For the information technology operators at the games, network security software has to represent a top priority.
Sure there have been controversies over cauldrons, weather woes, and snow-lacking slopes, but Alvarsson said nothing has been in his domain, not even the glitch in the opening ceremonies that left part of the Olympic cauldron unable to be lit.
“I’m very happy to say we have nothing to do with the hydraulics,” he said. “We only deal with the information technology.”
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My Take: I think it’s pretty amazing that, despite the death of the Georgian luger that more problems haven’t happened at these games, given the heightened security we are living under, and the threats from what seems to have been some pretty unpredictable weather patterns. I would imagine if the Olympics were being held in a Chicago location right now, the would not be dealing with a lack of snow, but might be having a lot of trouble with server colocation issues and down time due to harsh weather.
The imprinted shirts and other items for sale at the Olympic games all have to be handled through retail accounts that depend on computerized credit card processing systems. It wouldn’t be a picnic if those computers went down and merchandisers lost money. That would also apply to the local eateries who rely upon their restaurant merchant account to process all kinds of online data, including food checks, inventory, and even their reservations.
I imagine that Olympic games visitors who are doing a lot of time wandering around Vancouver in their downtime, are buying souvenirs from the games and other places to take back home as corporate gifts or gifts for their family and friends. Imagine the flood of revenue pouring into the shops and restaurants in and around the event themselves? They’ve got to be happy for the business, even if it’s temporary, right?
Speaking of temporary, if you’ve been struggling to make ends meet the last couple of years, one way you might have access to extra cash is through your whole life insurance policy. A lot of people buy their policies and make their monthly premiums and forget about them. But for those who do have policies that allow you to borrow cash or build up equity, it’s worth a call to your broker to see what may or may not be accessible.
If you don’t own a life insurance policy but want one, you might want to consider getting a few term life insurance quotes and find a policy with premiums that fit your monthly budget. You can always switch your plan to a whole life plan later on
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