Follow sailing regattas via cloud solution on the web

Anyone watching a sailing regatta from close up for the first time is often disappointed. Because from the shore, exciting head-to-head races or spectacular maneuvers are virtually impossible to see.

And coaches also find it difficult to identify competitors' weak points and analyze a competition accurately from a distance. That's why SAP has developed Sailing Analytics software specifically for sailing:

Fixed sensors and GPS transmitters on the boats record all essential information during the race, such as location and speed, sail position or wind direction, and transmit the data via mobile radio to a receiver station on shore.

The system prepares the information for viewers and makes it available on the web.

"For live events, our software even converts the data into animated graphics in real time and makes them available over the Internet"

explains Stefan Lacher, the responsible project manager at SAP.

"Users can thus keep up with what's happening on the water at any time on their computers or smartphones."

One of the biggest challenges was to build a highly available, dynamic IT infrastructure that would work reliably even during extreme load peaks - namely when many thousands of spectators access the system in parallel during the competition phase.

At the same time, the solution was not to incur high costs for the operator outside of the season, when it is virtually not needed. With this in mind, SAP decided to source the special solution from the business cloud of its hosting partner Pironet NDH.

The advantage: The organizer of a sailing regatta only pays for the resources actually used during the competition phase. Outside the regatta periods, he incurs low costs.

"The project is an excellent example of the benefits that cloud computing offers in practice"

says Klaus Nowitzky, Partner Manager at Pironet NDH.

"Thus, the cloud is proving to be a cost-saving and flexible alternative to traditional software operations here."

SAP first commissioned Pironet to run the application in July 2012 for the SAP 505 World Championship, the sailing world championship for two-man dinghies in France.

The solution will also be used several times in 2013, including at Kiel Week and this year's SAP 505 World Championship, which will be held in Barbados from the end of April to the beginning of May.

Project data at a glance:

• Installation of SAP's Sailing Analytics software in the Pironet NDH data center
• Setup of multiple identical "sailing servers
• High availability solution based on a cluster
• Integration of storage and load balancing
• Provisioning via VPN and an MPLS backbone

Advantages of the Cloud:

• High scalability and security
• Real-time access via mobile and stationary computers
• High availability of SAP Sailing Analytics
• Capacity on Demand and Storage on Demand
• Service and support according to ITIL
• Flexible, needs-based costs