2008 Olympic Games: the world's largest sports event ever organised

As the worldwide IT partner of the Olympic Games and Top Sponsor, Atos Origin integrates, manages and secures the vast IT system that relays results, events and athlete information to spectators and media around the world.

The Atos Origin contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the world's largest sports-related IT contract covering the games at Salt Lake 2002; Athens, Greece 2004; Torino, Italy 2006; Beijing, China 2008; Vancouver 2010; and London 2012.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be held from 8 to 24 August 2008. Competition will take place in seven cities, including Hong Kong (Equestrian) and Qingdao (Sailing). Atos Origin has had a team in Beijing since October 2004 working together with the Beijing organising committee for the Olympic Games and various international and local technology partners.

Beijing will be the biggest sports events of all. For an event of this magnitude, flawless delivery and deadlines are not negotiable. The figures speak for themselves:

* 28 sports (38 disciplines, 302 events)
* 60+ venues (37 for competition)
* 10 500 athletes
* 21 600 media representatives
* 4 000 IT experts (including volunteers)
* 10 000 computers
* 1 000 servers
* 200 000 accreditations
* 4 800 result system terminals
* 4 000 printers

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As the Olympic Games' IT integrator, Atos Origin is responsible for the design, build and operation of the IT infrastructure.

* Atos Origin is responsible for designing a complex and secure high quality IT infrastructure on time to specification and within budget. While designing architecture for the current Games, Atos Origin considers the next Games and how to transfer the knowledge gained.

* This knowledge and experience transfer decreases future costs and lowers risks through knowledge mapping, critical knowledge recovery and retention, resulting in 25% increase in productivity in Athens over Salt Lake, with only 50% increase in staff to manage an event 300% bigger.

* Atos Origin implements IT security preventative measures to protect against physical and digital attacks on the IT network architecture. The company is also responsible for building and refining a customised suite of software applications that power the Olympic Games.

* Atos Origin co-ordinates with the Organising Committee (OCOG) a massive IT testing program, a critical step in the run-up to the Games, to ensure the successful implementation of the IT solution. For the Beijing Games, under BOCOG technology department supervision, this program was launched three years before the start of the Games and represents more than 50 applications sourced from around the world, more than 200 000 hours of testing and more than 100 000 "test cases".

* Atos Origin applies its 'one team' approach to ensure that a complex network of IT partners and suppliers, employees and volunteers work together to deliver the best possible service and support to each Olympic Games.

* At Games time, from the Technology Operation Centre, Atos Origin manages a team of more than 4 000 IT team members, including 1 000 volunteers, stationed at 70+ competition and non-competition venues. The results will be used by more than 21 600 media representatives.

For the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Atos Origin, under BOCOG Technology Department supervision, leads and manages a consortium of nine technology suppliers and partners, including:

* Omega - Timing, Scoring and Venue Results Services
* Kodak - Film/Photographics and Imaging systems, accreditation badges imaging
* Lenovo - Hardware and servers
* Panasonic - Audio/TV/Video Equipment
* Samsung - Wireless Communications Equipment
* China Network - Fixed telecommunications
* China Mobile - Mobile telecommunications
* Sohu.com - Internet

Atos Origin designed and built two main IT systems to run the Games: Games Management Systems and Information Diffusion Systems.

Games Management Systems (GMS) support the planning and operations of accreditation; sport entries and qualification; transportation and accommodation schedules; medical encounters reports; protocol for VIP activities; arrivals and departures; staff, and volunteer management.

All the suites of applications below require a high level of quality, availability and security, as most of them are interconnected to highly secure systems (police and security forces, immigration).

Information Diffusion Systems (IDS) that includes the Commentator Information System delivering real-time competition results and athlete information and Intranet INFO2008, providing information to media, athletes, judges, coaches and sponsors via 900 on-site kiosks.

Atos Origin prevents any attacks from viruses and hackers during the Olympic Games, ensuring there is no disruption and the results are relayed to the world and to the media accurately and on time.

Atos Origin is focusing on three IT areas: security architecture, risk management and security operations, to ensure everything is in place to respond to any potential threat from either inside or outside the network.

Security is built into the infrastructure from the outset. Security measures include:

* Separation between the Games network and the Intranet
* Olympic network segmented into security domains
* Strict configuration management processes
* Strategic placement of Intrusion Detection Systems

Through extensive testing before the Games, the IT security team is able to understand what normal activity is on applications, servers, PCs and the network so an incident can be logged when the traffic becomes abnormal. This strategy enables the IT security team to effectively respond to incidents on a prioritised basis and keep the Games IT infrastructure protected from a wide range of cyber-threats that may otherwise compromise critical IT services

Atos Origin is training the entire IT team I security policies and procedures. At Games time, the IT security team is operational 24x7 in order to respond to any incidents that may occur, day or night.

We can do this for the Olympic Games. Imagine what we can do for you.