Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the fifteenth prime minister of Canada, remains one of the most influential and polarizing politicians in Canadian history. So when his equally charismatic son Justin Trudeau campaigned for the same office, the Council on Foreign Relations think tank called the 2015 Canadian parliamentary election one of the top 10 elections to watch worldwide. Although political interest in the younger Trudeau’s race was as intense as it had been for his father’s final run in 1980, media has changed significantly since then. Today, radio, newspapers, and television are being eclipsed by websites and mobile apps. To keep citizens informed and engaged, today’s broadcasters must navigate an increasingly complicated media environment, including expectation of 24/7 news on demand.

“We had about 10 million users on our Azure-based site, which was record-breaking for CBC/Radio-Canada. We’ve never had so much online traffic before.”

Bruno Rovito, Solution Architect, CBC/Radio-Canada

Canadian broadcaster delivers record-breaking online election coverage with Azure

“The project with Azure went off without a hitch. I was very, very pleased with the solution and reproduced the experience in more minor elections following the federal election.”

Bruno Rovito, Solution Architect, CBC/Radio-Canada

Customer Name: CBC/Radio-CanadaIndustry: Media and entertainment—Radio, television, cable, and satellite Country or Region: CanadaCustomer Website: www.cbc.radio-canada.caEmployee Size: 8,000

Customer Profile: Established in 1922, CBC/Radio-Canada is the national public broadcaster of Canada. CBC/Radio-Canada delivers news and entertainment across all major media, including radio, TV, web, mobile, and social media channels.

Election night jittersThe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Société Radio-Canada), officially branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the country’s national public radio and television broadcaster. It is also Canada’s oldest existing broadcasting network, offering programs in 15 languages, including English, French, and eight Aboriginal languages. CBC/Radio-Canada began television broadcasts in 1952. And in 1978, it became the first broadcaster in the world to implement satellite television, an innovation that CBC/Radio-Canada to extend coverage to even the most remote areas of every province and territory. Today, the company continues to make innovation and comprehensive service to all Canadian communities its top priorities.

CBC/Radio-Canada was getting ready for an anticipated record-breaking number of website visitors in the federal elections to be held on October 19, 2015. The broadcaster estimated that it would need to deliver real-time election coverage to an estimated 5 million users and handle approximately 1 million requests per second. On top of that, for the first time in CBC/Radio-Canada’s history, it planned to deliver a bilingual application on election night. The challenge included not only implementing a single app for both French and English users, but also a single data source that would handle unprecedented volumes of traffic in the heated election.

Providing less-than-flawless coverage wasn’t an option. However, CBC/Radio-Canada’s existing cloud infrastructure couldn’t handle the anticipated load and,

with limited support resources, scaling out on-premises wasn’t possible either. On the other hand, reconfiguring the cloud environment posed risks too—how reliable would it be, and could it scale sufficiently to serve millions of viewers simultaneously across the country?

Innovative, record-breaking coverageTo answer those questions, CBC/Radio-Canada and Microsoft worked closely together to design and test a new delivery platform on Microsoft Azure. “There was really no way we could fail on election night. There was too much at stake,” says Bruno Rovito, Solution Architect at CBC/Radio-Canada. “So I really wanted to bullet-proof the solution.”

Rovito was heading into one of the most closely watched elections in Canadian history with a small IT team and limited resources. The Azure team soon became an important asset. First, it configured the cloud architecture to distribute load evenly across three Azure App Service environments, each with its own web app. Then, the team rigorously tested the new platform in the two months running up to the October election.

Rovito admits that despite the preparation he was nervous on election night. “There were a lot of new components that had only been tested, so we had nothing to base our expectations on,” he says. “There was a lot of weight on my shoulders, for better or for worse.”

So what happened next? Canadians watched Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party sweep the 2015 election, as CBC/Radio-Canada set a new milestone too. “We had about 10 million users on our Azure-based site, which was record-breaking for CBC/Radio-Canada,” says Rovito. “We’ve never had so much online traffic before.”

Much to Rovito’s relief, “The project with Azure went off without a hitch. I was very, very pleased with the solution and reproduced the experience in more minor elections following the federal election.”

Flexible, scalable platform for ongoing successWith the cloud back end in place, the app was easy to modify for subsequent elections. “On the front end, obviously, we needed to modify certain things like logos

and names,” says Rovito. “But other than provisioning machines in Azure, there was nothing else to do to get up and running.”

Rovito spins the environment a week before election night, runs five or six practices, and then shuts it down a few days after the event. He notes that some of the biggest benefits are self-reliance and peace of mind. “Everything is a login away for me on the Azure platform,” he says. “Also, since it’s a platform as a solution, any network or security issues are taken care of for me. And the simple fact that scaling is a cinch is worth a lot. I really can’t put a price tag on that.”

Most importantly, Canadians benefit from another step forward in broadcast innovation from CBC/Radio-Canada. In the past, the broadcaster had streamed a total of four live audio and video feeds in French and English. Now, CBC/Radio-Canada streams 10 live feeds and provides

a customizable interface that people can use to select relevant content. They can choose from multiple options, including live coverage of party headquarters and speeches from candidates unavailable through traditional media like television.

With help from Microsoft, CBC/Radio-Canada continues its tradition of delivering groundbreaking, ever-expanding election coverage to Canadian citizens.

“Everything is a login away for me on the Azure platform. Also, since it’s a platform as a solution, any network or security issues are taken care of for me. And the simple fact that scaling is a cinch is worth a lot. I really can’t put a price tag on that.”

Bruno Rovito, Solution Architect, CBC/Radio-Canada

Software• Microsoft Azure

• Microsoft Azure App Service • Microsoft Azure Blob Storage• Microsoft Azure Traffic Manager

• Microsoft ASP.NET• Microsoft Visual Studio

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INTHIS SUMMARY. Document published March 2016.