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NFL's IT Chief Gears Up For His 25th Super Bowl

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-predict-the-lions-will-somehow-manage-to-lose dept.

BobB-nw writes with this excerpt from NetworkWorld: "NFL IT guru David Port claims he doesn't have a favorite football team, but on Sunday he'll be working his 25th Super Bowl. As the league's vice president of information technology, Port and his IT staff are responsible for building a temporary network to support NFL staff and thousands of journalists during Super Bowl week. Port starts preparing for each Super Bowl two years in advance, working with the city and venues where IT operations and media professionals will be based. More intensive planning starts about 11 months before the big game. Port explained that the NFL essentially built a small data center with IBM blade servers at the temporary headquarters in a local Marriott near the Super Bowl site. 'We built out an infrastructure with approximately 300 computers, PCs and laptops, and wired and wireless networks that are used for NFL core operations, for game production and business operations. Much of it is also for media,' Port said." CNet is running a related story about the technology behind the Super Bowl, focusing on some of the visual effects viewers will see, as well as the hardware that makes everything happen.

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. I knew it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Port starts preparing for each Super Bowl two years in advance...

    I just knew football was rigged!

  2. Re:Dave is a great guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, I was going to skip the Super Bowl, but you're making it sound kind of interesting.

  3. Re:Ninnle Ad at Halftime? by Nimey · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not true. It's really going to be a 30-second showing of Last Measure, complete with the "Hey everybody, I'm looking at gay porno!" soundtrack.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
  4. outsource the superbowl by weighn · · Score: 2, Funny
    It's my first superbowl (well, could be). Tried to watch before but just couldn't get to grips with all the stops and starts.

    Anyway, go Ben Graham - 1st Australian to play in a superbowl final.

    Next year, how about you outsource all the tech to Putin's Russia. You know, just as an international gesture of goodwill ... MalwareBowl

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    Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths