With the p5 line of servers, IBM provided USOpen.org with more powerful systems that include partitioning technology so that single physical servers can run multiple workloads.

"So we no longer had to dedicate servers to smaller applications," Kent says. "We can manage those servers as a pool and shift resources around using business tools and business policies, leveraging some of the Virtualization Engine capabilities."

That comes in especially handy since USOpen.org sees traffic increase 50 times normal during the tournament and then drop to average levels the rest of the year. Using the IBM technology, CPU and memory resources can be shifted as needed within the infrastructure that also supports the three other Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the Masters Golf Tournament and the Tony Awards, as well as internal IBM programs, at other times throughout the year, Kent says.

In addition, IBM uses a trio of geographically dispersed data centers to ensure the Web site stays up and running.

"Each site is 50 percent of full capacity, so if you lose a site due to flood or natural disaster or some other reason, with the two other locations, you still have 100 percent available," Kent says.

The architecture also provides a good testing environment, since technology can be introduced in one geographical location, while the other two sites support production environments.

By using such technologies as virtualization, IBM is able to reduce the cost of running the infrastructure, which pays off for organizations such as the USTA, Volk says.

"As costs go down on the IBM side, there is more opportunity to do cutting edge things with the resources that are available," he says. "So the real benefit for us is the ability to constantly stay on the cutting edge and constantly roll out innovations with the same resources."