|
IKANO News:
Title: USTA-Olympics Article
Date: January 15, 2002
URL: USTA.org
TeleTimes Magazine - Jan./Feb. Issue
Official Publication of the United States Telecom Association
Telecommunications isn't an Olympic sport, but IKANO Communications, Sun Microsystems and their colleagues are going for the gold just the same.
IKANO and Sun are among the companies that will provide telecommunications services and support for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. They face an incredibly daunting task, to be sure. But these firms, like the skaters, skiers and other athletes who will compete in Utah, have trained a long time for this event and are eager to perform.
IKANO Communications, a full-service provider of Internet networking infrastructure and private-label Internet services, is based in Salt Lake City. It is the Official Data Networking Services Supplier for the Olympics. That means IKANO will provide all data-networking services and accompanying support. The high-performance data network "will be used to aggregate data and information from Olympic events and then distribute the information to Olympic staff, athletes, officials, the host broadcaster, and the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOC) Web site at www.saltlake2002.com," the company recently reported. That information will include event schedules and real-time results, athlete profiles, weather and performance data.
IKANO's network, which will be available at all Olympic venues, will feature more than 900 switches, 120 routers, 150 T1 lines, 11 T3 lines, 12 network management stations, firewalls, cache engines and a few load balancing servers, the company reported.
"Our assurance to the SLOC is to provide world-class network services and support that will meet the critical need to accurately report, transfer and manage information during periods of high traffic and enormous pressure," said Henry Smith, CEO of IKANO, in the company release. "This partnership will allow SLOC to execute swiftly while immediately harnessing the power of the most up-to-date IP technologies available."
"IKANO expects that this will be an unmatched platform for showcasing its capabilities on a global stage," Smith went on to say. "IKANO will turn in a gold medal performance at managing the network technology for the world's most complex and greatest sporting event."
IKANO competed with IBM for this job, which obviously will be among the biggest and most high-profile projects it has ever handled. The company has networks deployed throughout Canada, San Francisco and Cincinnati and manages 700 Internet points of presence nationwide. But most of that works is done behind the scenes. This time, IKANO will be right out in front, with its name plastered on banners and signs.
"It really helps solidify our position within the state," Smith said during an interview. Is he nervous? Not too much. "We've been doing this for about two years. We've had enough dress rehearsals and tests and events (such as Olympic trials.) We feel confident it will go off without a hitch."
Helping IKANO will be Olympic veteran Sema, the sponsor that will spearhead the information technology services consortium for the Olympics and sort of serve as the "project manager" in this area. The company, which has been involved with the Olympics since the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona, has been designated as the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for these Olympics. In that role, Sema "will manage and integrate all the information technology services suppliers and deliver seamless services and instant communications to athletes, spectators, organizers, officials, the media, TV viewers and Internet surfers around the globe," the company reported.
Sun Microsystems, Inc. will be the official supplier of UNIX [R] server solutions for the Olympics. The solutions, according to Olympics officials, will include industrial-strength servers, storage systems, software and services. Olympics officials will use these solutions to store, manage and distribute crucial information from and about the Winter Games. Sun is a leading provider of hardware, software and services that power the Internet.
Aggreko, the international group that specializes in the supply of temporary power, temperature control and oil-free compressed air, will supply the secondary electrical power generation and distribution needs for the Olympics. The company said its systems will distribute enough electricity to power a city of 50,000 to 70,000 people.
|
|
|
Wholesale DSL
Our Model
History
IKANO Start Center
