NetAid-World's largest website with a heart.
In 12 days, the power to end extreme poverty will be online.
netaid.org
World's largest website will be one with large heart, too
Lubna Kably -Econimic Times
Mumbai 27 August
THE count-down has begun for the launch of the world's largest web-site on September 8 and it is all for a good cause. The NetAid web site, www.netaid.org built by KPMG LLP (the US member firm of KPMG International) is designed to accept 60 million hits an hour, 10 times the peak received during the last Olympic games. This site was developed by KPMG LLP within a record period of just 90 days and the organisation will continue to ensure e-commerce security.
The network architecture for NetAid is designed by Cisco Systems, it employs three distinct components and includes a total of more than 1,500 servers located in more than 90 data centers world-wide. Akamai Technologies which operates a global Internet content delivery service, will serve the site content. NetAid is promoted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The site does not revolve around receiving donations alone. Much more is on offer. The launch in the coming days will be followed by music concerts on October 9. Artists such as The Corrs, Celine Dion, George Michael, Jimmy Page to name a few will perform live in New York, London and Geneva and this will be broadcast around the world and 'webcast' live.
"The NetAid live events, TV, radio, webcast and web-site will be seamlessly integrated in look and feel, content and sequence in order to maximise the unique value of each medium and maximise synergies between them" said a release received from Cisco Systems. For instance, people watching the concerts on TV or webcast will be prompted by artists and issue oriented film packages to click on-line to learn about issues relating to or causes of poverty, download kits or take action.
In a e-mail reply to The Economic Times, John Fidler, corporate communications manager, KPMG LLP said: "The site is designed to handle as many as 1,000 donations per second". The functionality of the web-site will change over time. Initially designed to handle large volumes of traffic driven by the concerts, the site will evolve to include more diverse content including chat rooms, classifieds that match resources and needs and portal functions which link people with leading anti-poverty organisations.
Now for some technical dope. The site has been designed to support complex, distributed environments (multi-site, multi-server configurations) and to seamlessly integrate both television and web media. To reach the access speeds needed, the entire site and its thousands of mirrors will be running entirely in RAM said the KPMG spokesperson. Furthermore, Akamai Technologies will service the website using its distributed network of over 1,200 servers in more than 90 data centres world-wide. The website will be managed and monitored from Akamai's Network Operating Center in Cambridge and will have the capacity to serve 12Gbs of content and receive 60 million hits per hour. Cisco will deploy an additional 38 web servers using RedHat Linus and Apache software to host the text portions of the site.
The live streaming of the concerts on two channels, one carrying the concert and the other providing a continuous backstage feed will use 300 Real Video G2 splitters and will be managed by Real Network from their Seattle operations centre. The live streaming will serve as many as 1.25 lakh simultaneous viewers, ten times the largest capacity ever used. |
