National Football League Gets Ready for Game Day With IBM

NFL Standardizes on IBM X-Architecture



ARMONK, NY.-IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the National Football league (NFL) has standardized its business on IBM BladeCenter and System x servers. The servers from IBM leverage X-Architecture -- the company’s design blueprint for x86-based servers.

The league standardized on IBM servers to run its media information systems, facilitate distribution of game day video and run day-to-day operations for dozens of applications including its unique salary cap management system and a statistical analytics system.

A decade ago, companies typically used industry standard servers for simple file-and-print services. IBM helped change the future trajectory of the x86 market by leveraging its mainframe and supercomputer chip experience to help enhance the performance of industry-standard server components -- processors, memory and I/O -- to deliver unparalleled capabilities to x86 computing. The resulting “X-Architecture” laid the groundwork for IBM technology advancements that have brought x86-based servers to the forefront of enterprise computing, helping clients streamline business operations and do more with the same IT dollars.

“IBM X-Architecture has evolved with superior engineering innovations that have continued to deliver for the NFL year after year,” said Jonathan Kelly, NFL Director of IT. “System x provides the performance and the reliability we need to drive our diverse business applications. It enables the NFL to deliver reliable information services to our 32 teams and our business partners. In addition, the new x3850 M2 system is optimized for virtualization which is critical to the NFL maximizing utilization and efficiency.”

The NFL is currently testing the new IBM System x3850, based on the fourth generation of IBM’s chipset technology -- X4. With the System x3850, the NFL will have the ability to begin building a virtualized environment to reduce its datacenter footprint and further improve its business operations