World Cup 2002: The IT chief speaks to silicon.com

Whatever team you support, it's hard to dispute the success of this World Cup. From the success of the minnows to the return of Ronaldo to the seamless IT systems that have made the whole thing possible.

Okay. So maybe the systems behind the event won't be among the abiding memories but they've been crucial, and left most people involved smiling.

Up to now, we've heard about the networking of the World Cup (http://www.silicon.com/a53439 ), how Yahoo! could have done more online (http://www.silicon.com/a53440 ) and stories from users on the ground (http://www.silicon.com/a53627 ). But what of the person in charge of all the IT? In the following interview, Tony Hallett catches up with Gerard Gouillou, head of FIFA IT, pulling this Frenchman away from a supper with Japan's royal family, no less.

Tony Hallett: The World Cup is almost over and both in terms of the football and organisation it's been judged a success. What have you been most pleased with?

Gerard Gouillou: There are two things, the first unrelated to the systems. I'm very proud of how the team working on the World Cup was built up, how they set aside their particularisms and worked together very hard, as individuals from 16 nations. Then there's the fact that one year ago nothing existed. Back then interviewers were saying we were getting underway two and a half years too late. But we've delivered a solution more advanced than the one we had four years ago.

TH: You mention the team, the engineers and others you have on the ground. I know they were moving around a lot between games. Is there a sense of battle fatigue now?

GG: The type of excitement and special atmosphere this kind of event engenders means most of us don't even notice if we've been working 24 hours.

TH: What has your schedule been like?

GG: In theory, it goes something like: 6:00 - conference call and update 8:00 - meet with officials and partners 9:00 videoconference with both countries then time to work with my team. 12:00 - 2:00 sees that day's venues wake up and get ready. It's then hectic until about 11:30 at night. Then it's a case of maintenance. Sometimes it means working close to 24 hours but I've been okay - I even managed about five hours sleep last night.

TH: You planned and tested the various systems. How has traffic been compared to what you expected?

GG: Reports have shown a huge, huge amount of data internally. We carried four to five terabytes on the internal network while on the fifaworldcup.com website [the tournament's official site run in conjunction with Yahoo!] we've had five to six times the traffic of the two main Salt Lake City [Winter Olympics] sites. We've had 1.6 billion page views and up to six million individual users per day, with an average of around 2.5 million. It's also been the first time we've brought the TV traffic onto the IT network and I'm very proud of that.

TH:What are the lessons that businesses can take from what you've done?

GG: That infrastructure is the most important thing on which you build your future. It must be flexible as well as reliable, cost-efficient and something you're not tied to.

TH: How about the technology - which technologies stand out for you and will make a difference for businesses?

GG: Any of them that work without causing me to have nightmares! No, that's selfish. I must say I know the world is now about communicating, and about doing that while being reliable and cost-efficient. We've done that with this World Cup. Making that big picture a reality is what's pleased me the most.

TH: And what will you take away for the Women's World Cup in 2003 and Germany 2006?

GG: We'll be looking towards more mobile and more flexible infrastructure. But I have a vision here. Every World Cup we're making things better, with bigger, better technology. That's good but also bad because it's not a World Cup of the most technology or richest company or country. My dream is that we make sure the technology is so well-designed and fluid that the World Cup will be whatever it should be as a sport.

TH: Finally, have you managed to fit in many of the games?

GG: Only four.

TH: What's your prediction for the final?

GG: I think 2-1 to Brazil. But then what do I know, I'm a rugby man!

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