<< back to listing Boston Marathon Website Serves a Worldwide Audience Marlborough, MA, (April 12, 2005) - On April 18th, Northeast Data Vault will be behind the scenes of one of the world's venerable sporting events, the 109th Boston Marathon. For the fifth year running, the company is the hub of the Boston Marathon's worldwide Internet presence. Northeast Data Vault, which is designated the Official Data Center Service Provider of the Boston Marathon, houses the Boston Athletic Association's web site (www.bostonmarathon.org) year-round. But on race day servers in the company's data center in Marlborough will collect and disseminate real-time information about the race as it unfolds. Beginning with the starting gun, the race will be tracked using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips attached to the running shoes of the race's 20,600 registered runners. Antenna mats located at the starting line, every 3 miles (5km) over the race course, and at the finish line track each athlete's progress. When a runner crosses a mat their RFID chip is read, and their identity, location, and split time are fed to media headquarters at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel; from there the information is uplinked to Northeast Data Vault's data center in Marlborough, MA. At Northeast Data Vault, high-performance servers and ancillary equipment keep cyber-spectators worldwide apprised of the race's progress. The Marathon's website was visited by more than 600,000 unique visitors on race day in 2004; these individuals made over 4 million athlete tracking requests. Last year's race also introduced Athlete Alert, where runner status at the 10km mark, halfway point, 30km mark, and finish lines is sent automatically to family and friends of runners using text messaging and email. Not only is the Boston Marathon the second most covered single-day sporting event in the world (the Super Bowl is first), but it is among the largest single-day sporting events on the web. John Burgholzer, Technology Coordinator for the Boston Marathon, is responsible for insuring that the technology operations of the Marathon run smoothly. Says Burgholzer, "A lot of people would like to attend the Marathon in person, but can't join the half-million spectators who line the race route. The Boston Marathon's website provides a way for people who have a keen interest in the race - friends, family, other runners - to share the excitement that accompanies the live race. It's satisfying to know that we have such a huge following on the web." Burgholzer continues, "Only the front runners are typically followed by the media. With our chip-based runner tracking system, and ability to deliver race status over the web and via text messaging, anyone can follow not only the progress of the front-runners, but of any registered runner that they might want to follow. We are pleased that we are working again with Northeast Data Vault to disseminate race data to the Marathon's large online audience. Each year as we have increased the capabilities of the Marathon's website, NEDV has supported us." Some key metrics about the Boston Marathon's website and race day are as follows. Registered runners: 20,344 (2004); 20,600 (expected 2005) Athlete location updates processed during the race: more than 184,000 (2004); more than 200,000 (expected 2005) Unique visitors to the Marathon website during race week: 1 million (2004); 1.1 million (expected 2005) Unique visitors to the Marathon website on race day: 600,000 (2004); 660,000 (expected 2005) Countries from which the Marathon website is visited on race day: over 100 (2004 and expected 2005) Web page views on race day: 6.2 million (2004); 6.8 million (expected 2005) Athlete tracking requests on race day: 4 million (2004); 4.4 million (expected 2005) Peak website activity on race day: 11:30 to 6pm EDT; peak hour 2pm to 3pm (2004 and expected 2005) Peak hour web page views on race day: 1.3 million from 2pm to 3 pm (2004); 1.4 million (expected 2005) Peak simultaneous connections to the website during race day: 56,000 (2004); 62,000 (expected 2005) Text messages of athlete location sent on race day: 175,000 (2004); 225,000 (expected 2005) Peak Internet bandwidth used by the Boston Marathon website: 69 Megabits per second (2004); 80+ Megabits per second (expected 2005) Glenn Friedly, President and CEO of Northeast Data Vault, comments, "The Boston Marathon gives us a unique opportunity to support an event that is watched worldwide, while showcasing the capabilities of our data center and our ability to support challenging customer requirements. We are pleased to continue our association as a trusted vendor of the Boston Athletic Association and the Boston Marathon." About Northeast Data Vault Northeast Data Vault offers data center services at its 25,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The facility is designed to provide a highly reliable environment in which customers can house their mission-critical systems. It includes dual fiber-optic entrances, redundant Internet connectivity, multi-megawatt diesel backup power generation, dual fire suppression systems, and a state-of-the-art video surveillance system. CONTACT: James Berets Northeast Data Vault (508) 281-5760 pr@nedatavault.com www.nedatavault.com