Melbourne 2006
Commonwealth
Games Corporation
Case Study
Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games
website wins gold with Telstra
The XVII Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne in 2006 was
a spectacular event. As one of the most prestigious sporting
events in the world, the games attracted tremendous interest
in Australia and overseas.
During the event, the official Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth
Games website brought the games alive for both local viewers
and a large international audience. The website was also a
comprehensive source of news for associated activities such
as entertainment, ticketing, online shopping, sporting venue
information, as well as press releases for the media. If people
wanted information on the games, melbourne2006.com.au
was the place to find it.
Challenge
It was imperative that the website remained operational at
all times. Failure to deliver constant and rapid availability of
information would lead to viewer frustration and deliver a blow
to the prestige of the Commonwealth Games itself.
Security was a primary concern. Since the website acted as a portal
for online shopping and ticket purchasing, comprehensive security
measures were essential to safeguard the personal financial details
of customers. Given the high profile of the games, the website
would also be a prime target for Distributed Denial Of Service
(DDOS) attacks that could stop the website functioning for long
periods of time and affect the image of the games and its sponsors.
Another major challenge was the unpredictability of usage.
Audiences would access the site to view popular events and
entertainment creating massive peaks in demand. These dramatic
fluctuations in website usage presented problems in provisioning
infrastructure and computing resources.
Solution
If the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation had
decided to deploy a solution themselves, it would have been an
expensive exercise to put in infrastructure and invest in technical
and managerial expertise. For a website that had a lifespan
of a few months, the cost of such a course of action would likely
be prohibitive.
Instead, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation
turned to Telstra, the Official Telecommunications Provider for
the games. Brian Nourse, Group Manager, Technology, for the
Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation explains:
“When we looked at the substantial investment in skills and
infrastructure needed for this important but nonetheless
short-term site, along with the associated risks, we decided to retain
the capabilities of Telstra who already had these assets in place.
Instead of buying the assets outright, we just paid for what we would
use. It simply made better sense.”
Telstra suggested a custom hosting solution based on a utility
computing model. Utility computing provides a pool of flexible
storage and computing assets that are allocated as required.
Using virtual server architecture, utility computing enables a fast
response to rapid increases in demand. Additional servers can also
be easily added. This enables infrastructure to be built up to meet
increases in website usage, rather than deploying the servers first
and having them sit idle until demand increases.
The solution was hosted and managed by Telstra in its Sydney
Internet Data Centre (IDC). Arguably one of the most secure
data centres in Australia, the Sydney IDC offers sophisticated
environmental controls, uninterrupted power supply and failsafe
mechanisms to provide the levels of redundancy and physical
security required for the website.
A full system backup and restore was also provided. In addition,
the IDC offers redundant, high-speed connections to Telstra’s
internet backbone that can be directly accessed by millions of
viewers worldwide.
Physical security is matched by high levels of virtual security.
Telstra deployed a Monitored Firewall Service with security policy
management and round-the-clock firewall security management,
monitoring and support.
To supplement the firewall protection, Telstra provided a
Managed Intrusion Protection Service. Strategically placed
intrusion detection sensors monitor network and server traffic
to detect dubious activities. Suspicious activity engenders
immediate response and escalation if required.
Underpinning these services were exacting service level
agreements (SLAs) that provided proactive supervision,
management and rapid response to incidents to ensure 24x7
uptime of the site. Brian Nourse comments:
“Given the importance and worldwide interest of the website, we
needed superior and reliable levels of service and our SLAs with Telstra
were designed for that purpose. Telstra consistently delivered the
quality of service we required.”
Telstra also instituted measures to protect against Distributed
Denial Of Service attacks. Brian Nourse again:
“From our knowledge of previous games and other high profile events, we
anticipated that DDOS attacks would be a threat. A major requirement
of Telstra was that they prevent such attacks and ensure the website
would be available to users as close to 100% of the time as possible.”
To protect the site against DDOS attacks, Telstra deployed advanced
capabilities that were an unequivocal success – DDOS attacks were
quickly identified and thwarted throughout the games.
Benefits
By choosing Telstra to host the website, the Melbourne 2006
Commonwealth Games Corporation kept their infrastructure
expenditure to a minimum. In addition, the utility computing
model provided an extremely cost-efficient service.
The Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation could
also take advantage of the skills and experience of the Telstra team.
Given the timeframes involved, it was vital that the website ran
smoothly from day one – there was no luxury of a learning curve.
Telstra not only had the required knowledge, they brought their
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experience from hosting the Channel 7 website for the 2004
Olympic Games. Telstra also set up a dedicated team with a
Project Manager who later became the Service Delivery Manager
to ensure a seamless transition from deployment to delivery.
Brian Nourse:
“Throughout, Telstra demonstrated an understanding not just of
the technical requirements, but also of our overall goals and the
importance of achieving them.”
Rapid deployment of the solution was another advantage.
Owing to time restrictions, Telstra started to provision the
infrastructure while the scope of work was still being defined –
an indication of the trust between the two parties. Telstra had
the first eight servers configured and ready within four days and
met every other deadline thereafter. As Brian Nourse comments:
“The key factor is that the games are of a fixed duration and
milestones cannot be moved. Delays and disruptions are not
acceptable as there are no second chances. It is a tribute to
Telstra that they achieved what they said they would do in
the required time.”
Most importantly, the website met strict operational uptime
requirements. During games time and other major events, the site
had to be available over 99.95% of the time. This meant that the
maximum outage on these days could only last 43 seconds per day,
a difficult task but one that Telstra achieved.
The effectiveness of the utility computing solution was also clear.
The site consistently catered to fluctuations of demand and
delivered content as needed even in intense usage periods.
And intense it was. During the twelve days of the games, over
9.7 million site visits and 65.3 page impressions were recorded,
with an average of 815,000 visits per day peaking at 974,000 visits
on the final day of the swimming competition. Brian Nourse:
“This was a very important event with an international profile so the
stakes were high. Telstra’s performance was everything we expected.
Their professionalism and responsiveness was a credit and contributed
greatly to the success of the website and the overall satisfaction with
the games. I have no hesitation in recommending them.”
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