World Summit prepares Olympic-sized IT infrastructure

Johannesburg, 21 Jun 2002

For months the roads in and around Sandton, Johannesburg, have been chaotic as much of the tarmac is dug out and replaced. City engineers have mooted the idea of using video cameras to monitor the area`s sewage system as tens of thousands of extra visitors overload it.

Now one of the final pieces of the puzzle - the information technology needed for the United Nations event - is falling into place with yesterday`s announcement that HP will provide all of the hardware needs for the conference.

The handover of equipment yesterday at a Parliamentary meeting follows almost six months of negotiations between the summit`s local organiser, Johannesburg World Summit Company (Jowsco), and HP.

The sponsorship will include equipment worth more than R30 million: 2 300 PCs, 128 servers, 53 notebooks, iPAQs, 10 scanners, 274 printers, 135 digital cameras, network switches, storage, security software, network node management and over R2 million in consumables.

Kirsten Leemans, HP`s IT project manager for the summit, says the equipment will be spread over 39 sites in and around Johannesburg, including airports, hotels, the Sandton Convention Centre, Wanderers Stadium and five media centres.

To bring it all together, application software for the network is to be provided by SchlumbergerSema, which was awarded the tender for application and integration technologies in April. The same platform was previously used at the Sydney Olympics and the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Mohammed Haffejee, Jowsco IT executive, highlights the scale of the undertaking: "The World Summit is as big as the Olympics if you only take the delegates." Given, however, that the summit incorporates a lot more people than just the delegates, Haffejee says: "We have more delegates and people to accredit than the Olympic Games ... more than the World Cup which uses the same software."

Announcing the sponsorship, Henry Ferreira, country manager of HP South Africa, said: "We will provide IT services and solutions that will connect and transform the venues of the Johannesburg Summit into a virtual news and communications environment for its attendees."

Apart from the hardware donation, HP will also provide a range of services including Web development services.

No network yet

The search for a sponsor for the event began in January when IBM, the original preferred provider, withdrew from the tender process. HP was not involved in the original tender process, but was approached by Jowsco in early January, according to Haffejee.

He says the cost benefit has not been finalised yet, but the value of the equipment and services classifies HP as an "international sponsor", which are those that contribute more than $3 million, while national sponsors are those that contribute more than R5 million. "HPs contribution will most likely be more than $3 million from what I can see," says Haffejee.

While the hardware necessary to run the summit has been obtained, there is one outstanding element of the summit technology puzzle: large area network, wide area network and Internet service provider services.

Haffejee says successful tender parties for these services have already been informed. "It is now up to them to accept these letters of appointment ... and the service level agreements." He adds that the deadline for this process is Tuesday next week.

The summit takes place from 26 August to 4 September.