Hostworks uses cloud computing to deliver FIFA World Cup Web site
Football ("soccer" in the US) fans are notoriously loyal and think nothing of cramming into packed bars to watch matches on television. Not surprisingly, the FIFA World Cup football competition is one of the most widely viewed live events in the world. It's estimated that 715.1 million football fans watched the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
In 2010, when Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) of Australia planned its World Game Web site to track FIFA World Cup matches and feature up-to-the-minute information on the competition, the company knew its site traffic would spike enormously. So SBS sought a Web-hosting partner with a scalable platform to handle the surges in traffic.
SBS chose Hostworks, an Australia-based Web-hosting service provider for broadcast and digital media companies. To provide the scalability and reliability SBS needed, Hostworks hosted the World Game site on Elastic Compute Infrastructure, an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud hosting platform. Elastic Compute Infrastructure is built on a mix of HP hardware and software.
Elastic infrastructure scales to meet demand
"When SBS asked us to host its World Game Web site for the 2010 FIFA World Cup it was unsure exactly how much Web traffic the site would receive, but they knew it would be significant," said Adrian Britton, general manager, technology, strategy & innovation, Hostworks.
SBS was correct: The World Game site recorded 1.5 million unique visitors, more than 25 million page impressions and two million video views.
According to Britton, Hostworks' Elastic Compute Infrastructure performed exceedingly well. "Elastic Compute scaled up as needed and provided SBS 100 percent availability," says Britton.
Hostworks builds future service delivery platform
Although hosting the World Game site in 2010 marked Hostworks' first Elastic Compute Infrastructure customer, it also signified the culmination of a multi-year effort to build out the company's cloud computing, on-demand platform.
A few years prior, Hostworks embarked on a strategy called Future Service Delivery (FSD), the goal of which was to increase the speed and efficiency of its Web site hosting processes. The company partnered with HP.
Hostworks needed a solution to more quickly provision infrastructure to its customers. To do this, Hostworks deployed HP CloudSystem Solution for Service Providers, an on-demand cloud computing platform that leverages HP BladeSystem Matrix with ProLiant Servers, Cloud Service Automation and HP Matrix Operating Environment software. It allows Hostworks customers to build, package and provision cloud services through a unified service catalogue.
"Elastic Compute Infrastructure allows us to rapidly deploy and scale up hosting environments as demand requires, and scale them down when demand drops," says Britton. "Because Elastic Compute Infrastructure negates the need for capital outlay, it provides cost efficiencies for our customers, allowing them to pay for only what they use."
Britton says that Hostworks' partnership with HP has been "hugely successful, providing the company the simplicity, agility and scalability" it needed to deliver the high-quality products and services it offers.
For more detail on how Hostworks is using the cloud, read the full case study (PDF 3.3MB).
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