The testing and deployment centre for IT at the London 2012 Olympics has opened.
Thousands of PCs, servers and network devices will be configured at the venue before being distributed to more than 90 Olympic venues.
In preparation for the competitions, test sports events will be run from July this year. Technology equipment is being configured for the first competition venues including Greenwich Park, which will be used for the equestrian events from 4 to 6 July. The Technology Operations Centre opens later this summer and will be the IT “mission control” for the games.
From the Equipment Deployment Centre, Atos Origin will work under the direction of the London 2012 Technology department with Acer, the equipment supplier, and BT, the communications supplier. The companies will manage the requests from the venues to configure and deploy IT equipment.
Gerry Pennell, chief information officer of London 2012, said: “Every single device, and there are thousands, must be properly configured, tested and prepared for deployment to the venues. The Equipment Deployment Centre is critical in these preparations and our joint team from London 2012, Atos Origin, Acer and BT will play an important role in ensuring everything is in the right place at the right time for the test events and the Games.”
By the start of the Olympic Games time, the suppliers expect over 10,000 pieces of equipment to have gone through the Equipment Deployment Centre and to have been deployed to the 95 competition and non-competition venues.