Executive Summary
The Seattle Kraken (Kraken) envisioned a modern media supply chain, so they engaged AWS Partner Integrated Media Technologies Inc. (IMT) to implement the framework for a hybrid work environment. The Kraken are the newest National Hockey League (NHL) franchise team, and as they prepared for the first season at Climate Pledge Arena from 2021–22, the organization saw an opportunity to launch with excellent data infrastructure. IMT recommended Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and Amazon EC2 for the initiative. Together, the Kraken and IMT implemented these services and deployed a high-performing system in time for the first puck drop.
Creating a Scalable and Flexible Modern Data System
When the Kraken brand was unveiled for the newest NHL expansion franchise in July 2020, the organization knew that it needed a modern media supply chain that would scale as the team’s fanbase grew. In addition to scale, data flexibility was a core need. “I’ve seen environments where you have to go through decades of tape footage and archived data to create content for the fan community,” says Erik Jones, vice president of technology at the Seattle Kraken and the Kraken Community Iceplex. “We wanted to avoid that and do this the right way from the outset.” The team committed to building their offering on Amazon Web Services (AWS) because they wanted a service that could adapt to meet evolving fan needs.
The Kraken engaged AWS Partner IMT for advice and assistance in building their new infrastructure. In addition to being scalable, the new infrastructure needed to be sturdy so that it could support hybrid work for teams across multiple facilities and global regions. IMT and the Kraken collaborated to document requirements and use cases and deploy an immense offering in time for the first puck drop of the 2021–22 NHL season. The team saw it as a greenfield opportunity to create a robust and scalable technology offering for both the Kraken and the community. “We set out to unlock fan engagement for decades to come by building the system on AWS,” says Jason Kranitz, president of systems integration at IMT.
