UEFA extends partnership with preferred ICT provider Interoute
Interoute, owner/operator of Europe’s largest cloud services platform, and UEFA have announced the extension of their agreement to provide managed ICT infrastructure and services for UEFA’s football competitions, websites, events and business operations. Almost all UEFA’s applications and systems, including the UEFA.com website and the UEFA Football Administration Management Environment (FAME), used to manage tournaments such as UEFA Champions League and EURO 2016 tournament, will be hosted and managed in Interoute’s networked cloud.
UEFA.com draws more than 80million football fans a year from more than 200 countries, with an estimated 160 million visitors due to visit the site during UEFA EURO 2016 next year. UEFA’s FAME application underpins the management of all its tournament logistics for players, sponsors, guests and media, and is accessed by more than 12,000 users a year from 173 countries. With the agreement Interoute will continue to support the UEFA ICT Team with the delivery of these business critical systems as it has done successfully since 2011.
UEFA is looking to launch new services over the course of the new agreement, including Interoute Hosted Microsoft Lync, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) services and other new applications made possible by Interoute’s extensive networked cloud infrastructure. To support UEFA Interoute has developed an agile SLA model that enables SLA levels to be calibrated to the specific requirements of a competition or event. This SLA has helped UEFA balance the need for guaranteed 100% availability during live matches with more standard uptime requirements for back-office systems during business as usual times.
Daniel Marion, head of ICT, UEFA, commented: “Interoute’s networked cloud is the infrastructure platform for 98% of all the IT services that UEFA provides, from digital media to vital back office activities. Interoute understands our events process and has an agile operating model to fit with the needs of supporting and managing the ICT systems we use to run some of the most high profile football competitions in the World. Interoute is big enough to offer innovative solutions to help us achieve our business aims, but has an organisational structure that allows us fast flexible access to the people in its business that help us succeed.”
Jan Louwes, executive VP, Enterprise Sales and Marketing, Interoute, said: “Supporting UEFA’s ICT team, Interoute plays a critical role in helping deliver the best experience for European football fans everywhere. We are proud to be working closely with UEFA to use the power of our networked cloud infrastructure platform to bring fast, new and valuable services to fans around the world.”