Customers of the Centennial Olympic Games bought tickets, ordered merchandise, checked out the weather in Atlanta and found out what happened minutes after the completion of their favorite sport -- from anywhere in the world -- all on the Internet.

As the official Internet Information Systems Provider for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG), IBM worked with ACOG to make 1996 Summer Games information accessible to more sports fans worldwide -- and in more ways -- than ever before. The primary server for the Olympic Summer Games World Wide Web site was a 30-node RISC System/6000 Scalable POWERparallel Systems (SP) computer supplemented by specific servers for video, audio and electronic commerce.

Largest commercial Web site
The Olympic Games Web site provided sports fans globally with news and information, including competition schedules, starting lineups, video clips and results as well as tickets and official merchandise. The largest electronic commerce site on the Internet, traffic reached millions of hits per day during the Games.

Also available during the games were Atlanta maps and travel information, the complete program for the Atlanta Olympic Arts Festival, broadcast coverage video clips -- and visualization tours through the new stadium, courtesy of IBM's 3D Interaction Accelerator (3DIX) software.

Tickets by the thousand via the Internet
By the time the Games began, fans had purchased tickets by the tens of thousands via the Olympic Ticket Server. Using the SP-based system, visitors viewed the entire list of sessions available for purchase. Or they searched -- by sport, day or location -- for available sessions, which were listed as well by date, time, description and ticket price.

The Ticket Server represents the first real-world application of IBM's Net.Commerce server software, which makes it possible for businesses to quickly, easily and safely create virtual storefronts on the Internet -- the fastest, most direct way to reach the six billion customers in the world today.

In addition, mementos of the Games were available from the official ACOG merchandising catalog via the Web page, using IBM's Interactive Marketing Service. This electronic commerce service offers businesses the ability to merchandise their products over the Internet, using sophisticated software and database technology. Merchants can get up and running immediately without having to invest in the infrastructure necessary to build their own electronic catalog.

How's the weather?
Thanks to ACOG's SP-based Web site, sports fans the world over were able to call up the latest three-, six- and 12-hour forecasts of the weather in Atlanta -- down to an area two kilometers square -- updated eight times a day.

IBM's Visualization Data Explorer software converts meteorological data into multi-dimensional images and high resolution models that allow much more accurate forecasts. Browsers on the Web were able to view graphic forecast results and other weather information such as Doppler radar, barometric pressure and temperature during the games.

To speed answers to requests for the complex mixture of digital, text and Web data, the necessary tasks were distributed among a variety of servers in several states. One example of how business in the future may well be conducted: The Olympic Games catalog server was in New York, while the fulfillment house was in Florida.

State-of-the-art routers, hubs and LAN technology linked the Scalable POWERparallel Systems primary server to other SPs -- "mirror" sites -- for quicker access by sports fans to the wealth of information available.

When traffic on the Summer Games Web site exceeded expectations, the scalability of the RS/6000 SP computer made it easy to add more nodes to the primary system to handle any increase in the volume of requests. Special high-availability software allowed one or more nodes to back up the others' processing capability, disk drives, adapters and LANs. SP nodes can be configured for a variety of functions -- including database servers or any number of data or application servers. And all nodes were monitored and managed from a single control workstation.

Visitors to the IBM Olympic Information Technology Showcase Executive Briefing Center at the Inforum in Atlanta were treated to a real-life study of how to exploit technology to meet the demands of running a business today. The Showcase allowed customers to see -- firsthand -- everything that IBM has learned in helping ACOG to plan, manage and run the Olympic Games.

Regarding the Internet alone, visitors were able to see how IBM worked closely with ACOG to design and run their Home Page. Practical illustrations included IBM's own Internet -- and Intranet -- systems management, sales force automation, and security measures. Solutions on view included subscription services, InfoSage, InfoMarket, Electronic Commerce, collaboration servers and the use of Lotus Notes -- along with applications such as data mining and transaction processing over the Internet.

This page illustrates how one customer uses IBM products. Many factors have contributed to the results and benefits described. IBM does not guarantee comparable results. All information contained herein was provided by the featured customer and IBM Business Partners. IBM does not attest to its accuracy.