Data analytics has become a critical element of any business strategy, and perhaps no industry illustrates this more than professional athletics. In virtually every sport, coaches, athletes, managers, trainers, agents, and equipment manufacturers use sophisticated data analytics to improve performance and gain a competitive advantage over their opponents. And when games are televised you can see the data in action.
A prime example is the National Football League’s partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The NFL and AWS use a powerful analytics platform to help visualize action on the field, gain insights and knowledge, and integrate the fan experience by offering a broader range of stats beyond the standard box score. Under the name “Next-Gen Stats,” the AWS platform has three main functions:
- Capture Data
- Analyze Data
- Distribute Results
Next-Gen Stats captures game data by using radio frequency identification (RFID) chips embedded in player uniforms, the football, on-field pylons, and within the down and distance markers to track and transmit data.
The chips monitor data associated with player and ball movement, speed, and distance within the context of the game situation. All the data is sent to Amazon’s public cloud where it is analyzed with a machine learning system called Sagemaker, a pattern recognition artificial intelligence program engineered to recognize personnel, formations, and play type. Analysis and information generated by Sagemaker is reported back to the live broadcast within 30 minutes, and a full breakdown of the game is sent to teams post-game.
If you watched an NFL game last season, you probably saw examples of this program in segments showing the (im)probability of completed passes.
The breakdown of these games can give a coaching staff and other associated organization invaluable information about what plays can be most successful in a certain situation, player tendencies, and numerous other insights that show the sport and its participants from new perspectives. Teams often use this data to aid them in the creation of future game plans and strategies.
It’s the same for businesses today. In every industry, organizations are taking advantage of powerful analytics to extract new insights from sales, marketing, manufacturing, IT, test, and a thousand other sources. This “Big Data” is analyzed, correlated, and modeled for the purpose of devising new business strategies, product innovations, process efficiencies, and whatever edge the organization can forge in a competitive marketplace.
When those efforts produce vital intellectual property, it has to be protected. Whether it’s athletics or industry, no one wants to take the field to find the competition has been studying their playbook, stealing their signs, and operating a step ahead. That’s why business and sports organizations must take necessary precautions to mitigate the risk of their data being intercepted while in transit. This is where Coviant’s Diplomat MFT can protect your organization’s vital information.
Managed File Transfer (MFT) software is an important component in any comprehensive data management program, ensuring records are moved reliably and securely, with complete auditability in the event that something goes wrong, or there are questions that need answering.
With Coviant’s Diplomat MFT, our software can automate, integrate, and control secure file transfers to any endpoint. This includes both outgoing file transfers to external sources, and data movement to the cloud. In all, Diplomat MFT can:
- Enhance the security of your Cloud Storage by utilizing strong OpenPGP encryption on files stored in the cloud. Only the intended recipients are able to decrypt and view the files, regardless of security issues at the Cloud Service provider.
- Leverage cheap, resilient, and accessible cloud storage services to send files to the cloud for pick-up by your trading partners and/or for partners to easily deliver files to you via those Cloud Storage locations.
- Create log files with system messages
- Maintain a SQL audit database
- Archive copies of files that are in transit
- Transfer files between internal systems, secure FTP servers, HTTP/S servers, email servers, SMB servers, Diplomat Remote Agent and other systems that may be outside the firewall
- Easily Automate file transfer workflows that connect local and remote resources over FTP, SFTP, and other traditional protocols with modern Cloud Storage providers
- Reduce the wasted time and risk associated with scripting or batch solutions to move files to and from Cloud Storage services, including quickly choosing which cloud storage user for any workflow.
When it’s time to call a dazzling new trick play, or announce a blockbuster new business innovation, you want to take the competition by surprise. Diplomat MFT can keep your game plan safe and sound, and ready for gameday. To request a demo or a free trial of Coviant for your team, click here.
