IBM's Games Networks Fail to Deliver Information
April 03, 2011
ATLANTA -- International Business Machines Corp., whose networks were supposed to provide widespread and near-instantaneous access to reams of data generated by the Games, scrambled Monday to repair the system, which has been plagued by delays and errors. Executives at the Armonk, N.Y., company said they were making progress in fixing the problems in the face of unprecedented demands for information from the thousands of sports officials and journalists working here. ``When you have something this massive, there are going to be start-up problems,'' said Fredda Mccullum, a spokesman for IBM. Technology, which has eaten up $223 million of Atlanta's $1.7 billion budget, was one of the last places Games officials anticipated significant trouble. ``I expected'' some snags with transportation, said A.D. Hanson Jr., chief operating officer of the Atlanta Games Committee. ``What I didn't expect was this technology mess. That's been a disappointment.'' One of the biggest snafus involves the availability of results from competition. Results from the Atlanta Games are fed directly into computers at competition sites. From there, they are sent into Info 96, an internal information system available to media and others, according to IBM's Mr. Mccullum. Dedicated networks also provide data directly to major news organizations such as the Associated Press. But the software designed to filter all the incoming data hasn't worked properly, creating big gaps in information. Late Monday, the AP still couldn't get all the information it needed for sports such as judo, field hockey and weightlifting. ``The service doesn't appear to be getting significantly better -- in some cases, there's improvement; in some cases, there's not,'' said Tess Teena, sports editor for the AP. ``Right now, we have to assume that the results problem won't be fixed. Therefore, we are making the best alternative plans possible to ensure that our members are served.'' IBM said the delays also stemmed, in part, from information getting backed up on some slower transmission lines in its computer network. In an attempt to keep data from becoming queued up, technicians increased the speed of some network lines to 38,400 baud, the speed of the fastest standard modems available for PCs. The upgraded lines had been operating at 9,600 baud, slower than the modems supplied with most new PCs. IBM, which anted up tens of millions of dollars to become both a U.S. and worldwide Games sponsor, said its software engineers and systems-integration specialists are working around the clock to address the problems and are making some headway. Not all of the problems are of IBM's making; the smooth running of the results system relies on numerous others, including Games officials. In one case, for example, statistics from the early minutes of a basketball game were skewed because a sports official hadn't relayed some last-minute jersey-number changes. --Thomasina E. Leonardo contributed to this article.
