Ticketmaster boosts flexibility with IT overhaul

Ticketmaster has overhauled its internet infrastructure and introduced open source software to boost the resilience of its systems.

The ticket sales company is using hardware and Linux software from IBM to make systems easier to maintain and allow it to move into new markets.

Selina Tobaccowala, Ticketmaster’s vice president of product and technology, says the firm sells 60 per cent of its tickets online and needs its web infrastructure to be as robust as possible.

‘Our goal is for our clients and consumers to be able to get to our inventory and sell it as quickly as possible. You can only do that if you have the right infrastructure and the right technology in place,’ she said.

‘We want to use IT to stay ahead of the rest of the market.’

The firm started the process of transferring to the new infrastructure in December 2004 and is now in the final phase of the project. This involves moving its back-end ticketing system, which is due to go live in March.

Before moving to the IBM infrastructure Ticketmaster used technology from several vendors to run its web systems, which made maintenance difficult and expensive, says Tobaccowala.

‘Our entire infrastructure is now redundant with two active co-location facilities,’ she said. ‘If one site goes down, we get full web site continuity, which is very important for us.’

The single web infrastructure will also be used by Ticketmaster to pilot new technology, including ticketing barcodes that can be sent to mobile phones.

Ticketmaster is extremely focused on using IT to meet its business goals, says Tobaccowala.

‘As we keep expanding our business through Europe we can take the Ticketmaster infrastructure and roll it out much more easily than before,’ she said.