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The San Francisco 49ers continue their business development plans as they prepare for the 2014 opening of their Santa Clara stadium. The latest news is that the 49ers have agreed to terms on a deal with Brocade as a Founding Partner. They join SAP and Violin Memory as Founding Partners.
Brocade could prove to be one of the most important Partners as far as fans are concerned. They will apparently be helping to develop a broader networking system that will be "unique among other stadiums in both its capacity to handle a large number of users and its anticipated ability to support technology needs into the future."
Given the struggles of most stadiums to support mobile devices on a consistent basis, this would be a big step forward. In half empty stadiums, mobile issues are not a big deal. But when you are talking about upwards of 70,000 people trying to upload data to Twitter and Facebook, the networks often fall apart. Ideally Brocade would be able to bring better service.
The 49ers have made it very clear that they want their stadium to be cutting edge. Jed York has talked about this in very specific terms. He pointed to how the Cowboys stadium is thought of in terms of its size. He wants the 49ers to have the most technologically advanced stadium in the world, as well as a stadium that provides significant environmental sustainability. For the former desire, this could prove to be a big step forward.
FOUNDING PARTNER BROCADE GETS NEW SANTA CLARA STADIUM
READY FOR PRIME TIME
Partnership is all about flexibility and building a rock-solid network foundation
(Santa Clara, CALIF) - When the new home of the San Francisco 49ers opens for the 2014 NFL season, Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) will make sure the 68,500-seat Santa Clara stadium is ready for prime time. The 49ers today issued more details about its agreement with the San Jose-based network solutions company. As a Founding Partner in the new stadium, the long-term partnership makes Brocade the exclusive and officialnetwork solutions partner of the San Francisco 49ers. In addition, the stadium's East Field Club will be named the Brocade Club.
"This partnership with Brocade provides us a tremendous foundation as we strive to build a best-in-class networking system to support and promote the ultimate game-day experience that will differentiate this stadium from all others," said San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York. "We have committed to building a stadium that represents all that is special about Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. Aligning with Brocade as a Founding Partner drives that commitment home."
"When two great Bay Area organizations like the 49ers and Brocade team up to combine world-class professional football with high-performance network solutions, it's a milestone event," said Brocade CEO Michael Klayko. "This is an opportunity for two of the world's great technology and sports franchises to jointly showcase the power of innovation, top-tier athleticism and network agility as a game-changing fan experience."
A goal at the new Santa Clara stadium, as well as at the 49ers SAP Training Center, is to deliver a scalable and high performance network that's built to meet needs well into the future, something no other stadium or team has accomplished. Having a reliable network infrastructure is like having a good offensive line. It works extremely hard and without much praise, but creates a crucial foundation that is hard to penetrate. The 49ers-Brocade partnership is all about flexibility as the team will use Brocade's network infrastructure to support all applications that will run in the new stadium.
49ers Senior Director of Technology Dan Williams has been working closely with Brocade, and feels confident this partnership will allow that goal to be attained. With over 15 years of hands-on technology experience in top-level engineering roles, delivering leadership to some of the strongest engineering teams in the Silicon Valley, Williams has the pedigree to make that judgment. In the last five years, he led the creation of Facebook's network engineering team and was instrumental in scaling the company's infrastructure capacity, as it grew exponentially and hosted 800 million monthly active users.
The stadium in Santa Clara will be the new home to the San Francisco 49ers. It was designed by HNTB and is being built by Turner/Devcon; the stadium is expected to be one of the world's best outdoor sports and entertainment centers, setting the standard for the next generation of sports venues. The $1.2 billion venue will have 1.85 million square feet, seat approximately 68,500 and will feature an expected 165 luxury suites and 9,000 club seats. It was designed to be a multi-purpose facility with the flexibility to host a wide range of events including, domestic and international soccer, college football, motocross, concerts and various civic events, and will be expandable for major events such as the Super Bowl. For more information, go to www.newsantaclarastadium.com.