London – 13 September 2007– Attenda Limited, the Always On Managed Services company, today announced that it is hosting the new Rugby Football Union Follow England website (
www.rfu.com/2007), to help England supporters’ follow their team as the 2007 Rugby World Cup kicks off in France.
Attenda has been managing the RFU main website for four years, however, the England Supporters’ website is a new site and new application, which has been specifically launched for the Rugby World Cup 2007. The RFU is expecting tens of thousands of unique visitors to the site as this year’s tournament kicks off. Operation and management of the new site is part of a three year contract renewal with Attenda.
The solution includes deployment of a new platform, with shared storage, and shared firewalls, providing the RFU with the on demand scalability that it requires to meet the expected peaks in site traffic during the RWC 2007.
The Follow England website provides supporters with a range of features including the latest England news, exclusive video clips, a daily podcast, a player diary, blogs,an exclusive column from Elite Rugby Director Rob Andrew and Ask Ashton, a regular Q&A session with England Head Coach Brian Ashton.
The new site uses Akamai Technologies’ global content distribution network. This solution provides a consistent, high-definition video experience online using Akamai's uniquely distributed edge delivery network that is specifically tuned for optimal delivery of HD files online.
Commenting on the latest Attenda contract, Mike Morris, Network manager, RFU says, “We have developed a strong partnership with Attenda and rely upon their high quality web applications managed service to provide our customers with the optimum online experience.” Morris continues, “Attenda were able to deliver an on demand highly scalable solution for our innovative Follow England website, enabling us to bring the site online in time for the start of England’s 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign.”
