How AC Milan Scored Big With AI and Pure Storage

Forget tiki-taka, AC Milan is playing a different game. The Rossoneri are dominating on the pitch and schooling opponents in the digital arena, thanks to a cutting-edge IT infrastructure from Pure Storage.

AC Milan, a global football titan with over half a billion fans, knows the roar of the crowd needs amplifying online. Their weapon of choice? A data-driven strategy that prioritizes fan experience and fuels the team with AI-powered insights.

But there was a bottleneck. Their legacy storage system was holding them back. Siloed teams and an outdated digital backbone were the technological equivalent of Serie B.

Enter Pure Storage. “The club’s legacy storage couldn’t keep up with its modern, innovative data demands,” says Joao Silva, vice president for EMEA and Latin America at Pure Storage. “AC Milan’s Pure Storage platform meets their complex needs. These are cutting-edge initiatives that showcase how the delivery of real time content and AI can benefit football clubs and the welfare of their players.”

Pure Storage transformed AC Milan's Media House into a high-octane content engine. Content production and delivery accelerated tenfold, pushing engaging videos and social media posts to their massive fanbase at lightning speed. Match highlights hit your phone before the sweat dries on the players' jerseys. Exclusive behind-the-scenes content drops while the adrenaline is still pumping.

"Pure helped AC Milan modernize our Media House so that content can be delivered across multiple platforms in one-tenth of the time that it used to take,” says Maurizio Bonomi, AC Milan's IT director. “The project has been a great success and has marked a new step in our ongoing evolution into a media company.”

Data is the new gold, and AC Milan is Fort Knox. Pure Storage's ActiveDR ensures near-zero recovery time from digital disasters. SafeMode Snapshots act like an impenetrable defensive line against ransomware, safeguarding precious data from cyberattacks.

And then there's the AI. Video footage from training sessions, meticulously analyzed, reveals hidden patterns and weaknesses in opponents' gameplay. Player data captured through sensors feeds into a performance-enhancing matrix.

AC Milan is even building a data lake — a vast repository of player medical and performance data — to optimize player health and on-field performance.

Bottom line

This isn't just a win for AC Milan; it's a glimpse into the future of football. A future where data and AI are as crucial as tactics and talent. AC Milan, with Pure Storage, is proving they're not just a football club; they're a technological powerhouse ready to conquer the digital pitch and beyond.

Image credit: iStockphoto/RomoloTavani