1. Case Study
The NCAA Makes
a Handoff
About NCAA More than 1,000 colleges and universities across the U.S. run their
Founded in 1906, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletics programs in compliance with NCAA standards. In addition,
is a voluntary organization that originally was formed to establish the NCAA provides access to information, maintains records, and
safety measures for college-level football. Today the NCAA oversees provides guidelines on everything from eligibility and recruitment to
the rules and regulations for college athletics at more than 1,000 sportsmanship and diversity. It works with its member institutions to
member colleges and universities and supports over 400,000 ensure these rules are followed. In addition, it certifies over 160,000
student-athletes each year. The Association provides these institutions high-school students each year who are interested in playing at the
and students access to critical information, communication and collegiate level.
support for their successful compliance and participation. Looking
past the game to see the goal, the NCAA is dedicated to ensuring “A significant portion of the NCAA’s relationship with its member
both athletics and academic success. institutions is transactional in nature,” said Brad Alderson, Managing
Director of Information Technology. “It’s all about making sure that
Situation all of our legislation, rules and bylaws are honored while taking into
Speed and reliability are essential in the NCAA’s complex interactions. account any exceptions that might occur. As a non-profit we are
The high volume of data and complex processes rely on a mix of always looking to keep our overhead down. The real trick is to be able
software applications and a substantial IT infrastructure. The IT staff to reduce our fixed costs while increasing the level of service that we
was required to focus on keeping the site going, leaving little time provide to our membership.”
for enhancements and innovation. Integrating systems and building
an adequate infrastructure in-house would be costly and create even
more day-to-day operational work. The NCAA sought an alternative NCAA Facts
that could change the game.
• Business Needs
Solution upport and enhance business-critical website while
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The NCAA chose AT&T to host, manage, support, monitor and maintain conserving IT resources
its collection of web applications, including IBM® WebSphere® Portal • Networking Solution
solutions and IBM® Lotus® Web Content ManagementTM which power osted and managed eBusiness website delivered on a
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the NCAA.org website. By relying on the eBusiness professionals from utility-based infrastructure
AT&T to verify application optimization and online performance, the
NCAA frees its internal resources to focus on creating innovative • Business Value
strategies for future growth and development in support of schools eliable, secure web-based processes enable complex
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and students. The AT&T Synaptic InfrastructureSM, a next generation business operations while addressing fluctuating demand;
utility computing platform, provides the NCAA with on-demand internal technology resources are freed up to deliver new
bandwidth for website availability without excessive costs or online services
labor-intensive infrastructure maintenance.
• Industry Focus
Playing to Win on the Field and in the Classroom on-profit supports student-athletes, school administrators
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As a nonprofit organization, the NCAA helps to fund the athletics and member collegiate institutions nationwide
departments of its member institutions as well as its own ongoing • Size
operation and development. It also helps establish rules for ver 1,000 member institutions and 400,000 student-athletes
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participation that account for physical safety as well as educational
accomplishment. The goal: ensuring that healthy, well-rounded
student-athletes can look forward to successful futures.
2. Case Study - NCAA __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2
Today, the NCAA conducts much of its business through NCAA.org. The In addition, delivering the solution on the AT&T Synaptic Infrastructure
website provides communication and information to prospective and offers a scalable infrastructure to meet the demands of real-time
current student-athletes and member schools. “It was created to be a web traffic. The Association can adjust its use of the AT&T virtualized
unified, accessible and reliable source of information, and to provide servers up and down in real time, depending on what its site and
the NCAA a way to interact in a timely manner with each of those constituents require. The Association only pays for the capacity it uses,
institutions to conduct the business of the Association,” Alderson said. when it is needed.
A Move to the Web Brings New Challenges
The NCAA has always been a unique organization. The variety of ”We decided we could either grow in-house staff
services it provides focus on both athletics and academics and is significantly to support a three shift operation or
complex without structural precedent. But the shift from paper to
web-based processes brought new challenges. “You can’t purchase
look to partners who are better equipped to handle
an application that lends itself well to submitting waivers,” explained that sort of thing.”
Alderson. In order to collect and process the specific information – Brad Alderson, Managing Director of Information Technology, NCAA
required of its member institutions and student-athletes, the NCAA
had to develop customized software applications in house.
“The economies of scale are just wonderful,” said Alderson. The
The Association began building its website before the Internet evolved powerful virtualized server system is built to ensure reliability,
into what it is today. “At the time we had little web presence,” said maintaining optimum user experience even as traffic fluctuates with
Alderson. “Now the whole attitude has shifted.” Demand for web seasonal events, such as when students return to school in the fall or
services has increased rapidly and the NCAA found itself struggling during busy championship seasons.
to keep up. “Instead of thinking we need to hold back, we are getting
pushed by our membership and student-athletes to do more online,” For those that depend on the NCAA, such reliable and predictable
Alderson explained. service is essential. The fully managed solution creates a simplified,
comprehensive structure for information exchange.
The growth in website traffic requires NCAA.org to be up and running
at all times. “As the volume of transactions has grown across the Layers of Network-based Security
Internet, so has the need for 24x7 access to these systems,” Alderson For the NCAA, successful information exchange includes the assurance
said. Maintaining round-the-clock site availability without limiting that information passes only between the designated parties. This is
the scope of services proved difficult. In addition, the rapid growth key, as confidentiality has become part of its mission to create and
of custom-built NCAA software systems had a downside: the IT maintain safety measures for the student-athletes involved.
infrastructure that evolved was disconnected and labor-intensive.
“The one thing that keeps me up at night is the security around that
This wasn’t a compromise the NCAA’s member institutions and data,” Alderson said. “AT&T offers the additional layers of security that
student-athletes were willing to make. “What they are looking for is we found challenging.” The AT&T support team proactively monitors
not just quantity, but for quality communication as well,” said Alderson. the website day-and-night, looking out for ways to increase and
protect the total performance. AT&T complies with industry leading
“Because we have built up quite a complex infrastructure over the layered security techniques and has instituted a layered security
years, the amount of money that we spend on just keeping the lights model, which provides for multi-level protection of all information,
on has grown significantly over that period of time. This eats away at data, and physical assets. This approach protects AT&T solutions and
the available budget for other areas such as innovation, building new the AT&T infrastructure from both physical and logical security threats.
applications using rich Internet architecture and exploring some of the
new technologies that are out there,” Alderson said. Powerful off-site servers provide the NCAA with efficient data back-up
solutions and allow it to build in multiple levels of assurance. “You
“We’ve got about eighty different applications available over the web can’t necessarily measure the impact on security in terms of dollars
for various aspects of our business,” he added. “We do that with the and cents, yet it’s significant in terms of peace of mind for our
support of about 25 IT staffers, so we have a very small operation.” It reputation and our brand,” Alderson concluded.
was time to call in a new team.
Successful Innovation
A New Strategy The relationship with AT&T has added benefits. “We can off load some
”We decided we could either grow in-house staff significantly to of the day-to-day tasks and allow our internal staff to focus more on
support a three shift operation or look to partners who are better new initiatives that will move the Association forward and provide
equipped to handle that sort of thing,” said Alderson. The NCAA chose additional services for our colleges,” said Alderson.
to consolidate and outsource its IT infrastructure and the network
of applications powering NCAA.org. Through this arrangement, AT&T One such initiative hopes to soon make a positive impact. “While it
hosts and manages the servers and applications responsible for the is more cost effective to collect information on the web, we need to
NCAA’s external web presence. This includes IBM Lotus Web Content avoid asking the same question multiple times,” Alderson explained.
Management and IBM WebSphere Portal solutions. “As a result, we are working towards tighter systems integration to
