Before the race began, the laces of the shoes of each of the more than 20,000 runners were equipped with a computer chip that collected data and wirelessly sent it to notebook computers placed along the course. The chip then relayed the data to Northeast Datavault, a central secure data center. Ten HP ProLiant DL360G3 servers with 3.20 GHz 1M Xeon processors support the application/Web layer, while the database layer runs Microsoft SQL Server on two ProLiant DL580 G2 servers. An HP MSA1000 SAN backend handles storage. The Boston Marathon deployed an expansive HP ProCurve network with an HP ProCurve Switch 5300xl at the core and a series of HP ProCurve 2650, 2626
and 2524 switches facilitating the extremely high volume of data transfer. The HP ProCurve Wireless Access Points 520wl and HP ProCurve Secure Access 700wl series provided appropriate access to resources that are needed for
the event, while still protecting the servers from unauthorized wireless access.
In addition, the 75 HP employee volunteers stationed throughout the race area with iPAC pocket PCs to access the HP Athlete Search System and access information about the location and progress of specific runners, based on name or bib number). Race viewers also could access the system online.
This year, HP improved the system with redundancy and reliability features to ensure constant uptime. "Our concern this year was making sure we serve up every request, so we did a lot with infrastructure, the data center and additional capacity," said Burgholzer. "We spent a lot of time in the HP testing lab and it really paid off." During the race, the servers never went above 30 percent CPU utilization, he added.
Other technology partners included Versital Communications for networking, Information Overload for consulting expertise and Verizon National Access for wireless technology.
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