Solodev Selected as Cloud Consulting Partner of the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games

With so much negative news these days, it's great to be covering something positive – and that's exactly what the Special Olympics brings out: positivity.

As an organization, the Special Olympics goes far beyond the field of play. Not only does it provide a diverse and inclusive community for athletes and their families, but it delivers life-changing healthcare to thousands of individuals. Tragically, over the last year and a half, Special Olympians have been largely sidelined due to the pandemic, as people with intellectual disabilities have the highest independent risk factor for contracting COVID-19.

But that all changes next June at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, which will be held from June 5th through the 12th in Orlando, Florida. These will be the largest Games in history, as several Caribbean nations have also been invited to compete (the charter of the Special Olympics is inclusion, so this fits right in).

As with most modern large-scale live events, mobile apps and digital experiences have played a key role in the fan engagement strategy. The 2022 Special Olympics USA Games is planning to take that innovation even further – and is looking to the Cloud as a means to unlock the possibilities.

To get there, they've engaged Solodev – a cloud-first content management and customer experience platform with a distinct focus on AWS. More recently, the company has transformed into something of a marketplace ecosystem for building and deploying custom cloud apps and experiences, leveraging their knowledge of containers and DevOps to help companies launch advanced cloud services at scale. This includes their legacy Solodev CMS, but now a whole lot more.

Today, the company announced that it has been awarded the status of "Cloud Consulting Partner" of the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games. Solodev will be responsible for building and deploying an advanced cloud infrastructure that powers immersive digital experiences – including a mobile fan engagement app designed exclusively for the event.

With the Games anticipating over 5,500 athletes and coaches, 20,000 volunteers, and more than 125,000 spectators, any apps will be expected to scale with a high degree of assurance. The fan engagement app, for example, will provide ticketing, scheduling, wayfinding, and other features that are essential to athletes and fans. Ensuring a seamless experience for tens of thousands of users will require an intelligent, secure, and highly scalable cloud strategy, which is where Solodev excels.

As an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Advanced Technology Partner, the company has amassed deep experience building world-class cloud architectures – the kind that enable applications to serve large communities of users. To meet the unique goals of the USA Games, Solodev chose AWS as the cloud of choice to design and deploy a container-based “serverless” infrastructure. The solution will integrate AWS’s most advanced portfolio of services, and Solodev's team will provide the necessary DevOps to support the infrastructure leading up to and during the event.

“Being a Cloud Consulting Partner to the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games is one of our proudest moments,” said Shawn Moore, Chief Technology Officer at Solodev. “Leveraging our cloud expertise to help create a unified and connected event for these incredible athletes – as well as their families, friends, and fans – is part of our own mission to positively impact the world through digital experiences.”

“We’re proud to have Solodev on our technology team,” said Lonnie Snyder, Chief Information Officer at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games. “As we build our mobile fan engagement app, the cloud has become a critical part of our overall digital strategy. We needed a trusted partner to help guide us through key decisions, so we can deliver the best experience for our athletes, coaches, volunteers, spectators, and ambassadors.”

Solodev has long supported the technology goals of not-for-profit organizations, delivering best-in-class cloud consulting, CMS, and other digital experience services. This includes public sector and healthcare organizations with critical requirements around security, scalability, and high availability. According to the company, their experience will provide key advantages to the USA Games, bringing deep cloud expertise that will support safety and healthcare-related services that help improve the lives of Special Olympics athletes.

“What we’re building is more than a cloud infrastructure for fan engagement, it’s digital transformation,” said Matt Garrepy, Chief Digital Officer at Solodev. “Our underlying serverless architecture powered by AWS will have an impact on an athlete’s entire experience. Our team’s contribution will help change lives for the better, and that’s a unique privilege for any company.”

The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-style sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities – giving them opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills, and friendship with their families, other athletes, and the community. The USA Games is held once every four years in the United States, offering athletes from across the nation to compete in summer sports.

To learn more about the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, visit https://www.2022specialolympicsusagames.org/

About Solodev

Solodev is the galaxy’s largest ecosystem of cloud and digital marketing services, from containers to content management to AI. With Solodev, developers and organizations can build and launch amazing customer experiences, power omnichannel strategies across the IoT, deploy custom cloud apps, and collaborate on digital transformation. Solodev also provides consulting, training, managed services, and 24/7 human support to help users succeed on their cloud journey. An Amazon Web Services (AWS) Advanced Technology Partner, Solodev has achieved rigorous competencies in Government, Education, Digital Customer Experience (DCX), and Public Safety & Disaster Response. Solodev products – including CMS, Kubernetes, and Personalize – can be purchased on-demand in the AWS Marketplace, through State and Federal contract vehicles, or online at www.solodev.com

About 2022 Special Olympics USA Games

The 2022 Special Olympics USA Games, scheduled for June 5-12, 2022 in Orlando, Florida, will unite more than 5,500 athletes and coaches from all 50 states and the Caribbean during one of the country’s most cherished sporting events – the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games. The Games will offer 19 Olympic-style team and individual sports, including athletics (track & field), basketball, bocce, bowling, cheerleading, equestrian, flag football, golf, gymnastics, open water swimming, powerlifting, soccer, softball, stand up paddleboard, surfing, swimming, tennis, triathlon and volleyball. For over 50 years, Special Olympics has been empowering athletes and encouraging a more inclusive world for those with intellectual disabilities and beyond. For more information, www.2022USAGames.org