Games - Big, Social and Mobile

Excitement is building in Glasgow and throughout the Commonwealth ... and indeed within Atos. This year sees the twentieth Commonwealth Games, established in 1930, return to Scotland for its third visit; and for the first time outside its capital city ... taking advantage of some iconic Glaswegian sporting venues such as Celtic Park, Hampden Park and Ibrox.

It's all in the numbers: This Games will have 17 sports; ten of these are core disciplines, with the other seven selected by the Organising Committee. With 71 countries and territories taking part, bringing 6,500 athletes to 261 events over 11 days, supported by up to 15,000 volunteers, with a million tickets and 1.5 billion people watching around the globe - it's a grand occasion; and it's on the world stage.

The systems provided by Atos to support the Games, including the "Results Data Feed" and the "Games Information Systems", need to cope with the event variability and the scale of the operation ... providing 100% availability, and guaranteed performance.

With this scale comes the requirement to capture, handle and process large volumes of data. Indeed Big Data is one of the topics everyone is talking about in the IT industry - we know that with the vast volumes of information that we are now able to process we can derive more business value from it than ever before.

Delivering results through the Games Information Systems to media organisations and the public over the Internet needs to happen almost instantly, and securely - making the Games results available to consumers wherever they are, and whatever device they are using. Just like the corporate environment these days, "workplace mobility" demands that systems work on any technology and in any location.

I am a team mentor in the Atos IT challenge, a competition for University students, and as I write this article my team is putting the final touches on their great idea - a Fantasy Athletics game, making use of real-time Games results data to extend the experience of the Games further, so that you're a part of it too. With their application you can build fantasy teams together with your friends and compete against other groups using the service.

It's a great example of how social collaboration is pervading our world - enriching our experiences, joining societies, and creating more value for the community.

We are focusing on these three themes of Big Data, Workplace Mobility and Social Collaboration throughout these Games, so watch out for more on the topics as the competition begins on 23 July 2014.