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Star Alliance and IPsoft Launch Web CampaignJul 16, 2012 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- As part of its 15th anniversary, global airline alliance Star Alliance hosted a global Internet contest on a specially designed Web portal. In a release, Star Alliance said that the infrastructure, which was provided by IPsoft, a provider of managed services, and Wusys, which supplies cloud computing services, made it possible for more than 21 million competition entries to be submitted during a five week period. For the anniversary in mid-May, Star Alliance said that 178 million frequent fliers were invited to enter the Web-based contest, with first place winning a complimentary trip to various cultural events within the airline network with up to fourteen friends. To ensure a smooth process for the global Internet contest, a separate Web page was created to present an introduction video and Java-based Web application. Because Star Alliance expected up to 21,000 participants to enter the Web page at any one time, the company said that the infrastructure for the data traffic had to be enlarged up to 150 TB. Therefore, Star Alliance decided to use a highly available, scalable and flexible cloud solution provided by IPsoft. Subsequently, 21 million users were able to participate in the contest without any downturn over the entire five week period. Rudolf Kergassner, managing director of IPsoft Germany, explained: "One of the key challenges of the project was the short time frame. From the original conception through extensive testing to the point of final operation, we had a time frame of six weeks. Furthermore, we had to ensure that the infrastructure was configured to cope with large peaks in traffic." John Donohoe, director of project management, Star Alliance, explained: "From a technological point of view, the requirements in this project were extensive. With IPsoft, we found a partner who cloud provide a cloud and network environment in time-intensive conditions and helped us manage the possible flood of users to the site. We are incredibly impressed that IPsoft managed to complete the project both on time and under budget." ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) |