IBM predicted Wimbledon's web traffic and cut cloud-computing hours ~50%

Wimbledon's digital platforms see traffic that can surge by around 55,000 times during the championships. Reactive cloud platforms needed human intervention to scale computing resources, wasting both compute and labor whenever demand moved.

A small team in IBM Global Technology Services built PCC: advanced forecasting, discrete-event simulation and numerical methods model Internet traffic demand in near real time and allocate cloud resources automatically. In 2014 it was applied across tennis and golf tournaments.

PCC cut IBM's cloud-computing hours by about 50 percent at those events while automating labor, produced 16 patent filings, and strengthened IBM's analytics patent portfolio. IBM remains Wimbledon's official technology partner, running fan experiences on AI and hybrid cloud.

Provision cloud capacity by forecast, not reaction

Forecasting turned a reactive scaling problem into a scheduled one

Simulation plus numerical analysis handled non-stationary spikes

Automation cut labor along with compute

For workloads with huge, predictable spikes, don't pay for peak capacity or wait for alerts; forecast the spike and let provisioning follow the forecast.

PCC expanded within IBM's portfolio and brand; IBM's Wimbledon partnership continues, with fan features such as Match Insights and Win Factors running on IBM Cloud and hybrid cloud technologies.