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World Champion New England Patriots Team Up with Northeast Data Vault
Marlborough, MA, (December 16, 2004) - The New England Patriots
(www.patriots.com) recently teamed up with Northeast Data Vault (NEDV;
www.nedatavault.com) to consolidate their web site operations at NEDV's data center in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The consolidation is part of a recently completed re-launch of the web site of the 2001 and 2003 Super Bowl champions. Most of the web site operations of the Patriots as well as for Gillette Stadium are now located at NEDV.
The Kraft Group, the operational entity that manages various aspects the Kraft family of businesses, first began using the NEDV data center in 1998.
At that time the online development division for the group's sports properties unit built an e-commerce engine for the Patriots. Initially deployed at NEDV were the Patriots online Proshop and ProTeam Auctions sites. Subsequently added were community portals, including a portal featuring exclusive content for Patriots season ticket holders and a similar portal for the Center Circle, the season ticket holders for the Kraft-operated New England Revolution Major League Soccer team.
The Patriots recently consolidated further by moving the public Patriots.com site to NEDV in order to leverage the e-commerce and community engine. The move allows for a more cohesive growth strategy among all of the Kraft Group's online sports properties.
Moving the site from one data center to another required the migration of content, data, and media. That the move took place during the NFL season made the project challenging for those involved. Not to be dissuaded by complexity, the Krafts realized that the benefits outweighed the challenges.
As in football, the Patriots organization challenges itself to lead in technology, and the Kraft family has always been a strong proponent of the Internet. In 1995, the Patriots were the first professional sports team with an official web site. In 1997 the team was the first to produce a nightly direct-to-digital streaming video segment for their web site.
"We see ourselves not just as leaders, but as visionaries," said Jonathan Kraft, Vice Chairman of the Patriots. "We continually strive not just to improve our web sites, but to push the boundaries, learning what works online and developing new ways to communicate with our fans." Recently the Patriots became the first NFL team to have a section of their web site available in Chinese.
Fred Kirsch, Director of Interactive Media for the Patriots, and Trent Adams, their official Chief Innovator are tasked with helping to solidify the Kraft vision into a technical action plan. Once the plans are settled, a mix of contractors, vendors, and partners are selected to implement the strategy, and NEDV has played a growing role over the years.
"In choosing a partner, we pay a lot of attention to the people behind the desks," says Adams. "While it's a given that they understand the technical requirements of their job, we never underestimate the value of a true partnership. It is the intangible benefits to working with NEDV's staff that have helped us realize our often demanding goals."
NEDV President and CEO Glenn Friedly welcomes the expanded relationship with the Patriots and the Kraft Group: "We are pleased to have had the Patriots and the Kraft Group as customers and look forward to an expansion of the partnership. Their drive to excel in all aspects of their business operations makes us proud to be associated with them."
Because the Patriots required zero downtime during the move, they retained Getfused Inc(www.getfused.com) of Norwood, Massachusetts, an NEDV business partner, to procure the necessary servers and applications, deploy them in NEDV's data center, help to move the content of the various web sites, and seamlessly cut over to the new infrastructure.
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
Trent Adams
New England Patriots
(508) 549-0073
trenta@patriots.com
www.patriots.com
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