Alpred SL: Taking a local sports paper global with Google Cloud
About Alpred SL
Alpred SL drives a number of innovative online projects, including the leading weather prediction service Meteored, available in 50 countries, and the Seville-based Estadio Deportivo, which provides continuously updated sports news to Spanish-speaking fans around the world.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact usAlpred SL built a fast, scalable, and secure infrastructure supported by Google Cloud to transform a local paper into a sustainable sports media brand.
Google Cloud results
- Provides a robust architecture with round-the-clock availability
- Empowers teams to develop, test, and deploy new services faster and more easily
- Enables faster page load and response times, increasing advertising revenue
Handles match day traffic peaks with autoscaling
Over the past two decades, the digital revolution has reshaped the way we consume news media. Most publications now have an online version, with some having done away with print media entirely to focus on a digital-only strategy. But with profound transformation come new challenges, and monetization is a major one for online journalism. How can news publications that don’t use a paywall continue to fund the high-quality, engaging content their readers expect?
Alpred SL knew that a successful digital transformation strategy involved much more than just creating an online version of the print edition. The Spanish information services company, which owns the major weather prediction network Meteored among other subsidiaries, acquired the local sports newspaper Estadio Deportivo in 2021. "Estadio Deportivo was a traditional print newspaper that readers would buy in their local stores," says Adrián Martínez Navarro, Chief Operating Officer, Alpred SL. "When Alpred SL acquired the paper, we made the strategic decision to shut down the print version and go 100% digital."
Alpred SL acquired Estadio Deportivo with the aim of creating a free, continually updated, 100% digital sports news platform that would meet the needs of Spanish-speaking sports fans around the world. The company decided that the ideal partner to support the new migration project would be Google Cloud.
"Google Cloud supports all our major projects, international expansion and business diversification operations. It enables us to work faster, constantly add and update new features, and go to production more quickly."
—Adrián Martínez Navarro, Chief Operating Officer, Alpred SLDriving digital transformation with Google Kubernetes Engine
Alpred SL first migrated its infrastructure to the cloud in 2015, and since then has worked with Google Cloud as its main technology partner. "Google Cloud supports all our major projects, international expansion and business diversification operations," says Martínez Navarro. "It enables us to work faster, constantly add and update new features, and go to production more quickly."
Before the company was acquired by Alpred SL, Estadio Deportivo’s infrastructure was entirely on-premise. The paper’s content management system (CMS) was designed for both print and online versions that the Alpred SL tech team could only access through an API. "The existing CMS was obsolete and no longer fit for our purposes. We built an entirely new, cloud-based CMS that was custom-made for our needs, and deployed it on Google Kubernetes Engine," says Martínez Navarro.
The previous infrastructure had been difficult to manage for the Alpred SL team. "We were dealing with constant set-backs, errors, and outages," says Martínez Navarro. "Google Cloud gave us some much-needed peace of mind. We now have a robust architecture we can trust to help us provide our services round-the-clock."
Boosting revenue through improved page load times and SEO
The sports world moves fast, so Estadio Deportivo’s services need to be constantly available and deal with considerable traffic peaks. "On match days, we have far more hits than usual, which was hard for our previous infrastructure to handle," says Martínez Navarro. "With Google Kubernetes Engine, we can now upscale and downscale automatically." While the Estadio Deportivo infrastructure now runs entirely on Google Kubernetes Engine, Meteored is still partially based on legacy services. The company intends to progressively migrate its architecture to Google Kubernetes Engine over the next few months. "Kubernetes is definitely a focus technology for us," says Martínez Navarro.
Alongside Google Kubernetes Engine, the company uses Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, Cloud Build, Artifact Registry, Anthos and Firestore to support its services. "Security is another major concern for us, and we take our data very seriously. We feel confident that Google Cloud keeps it safe," says Martínez Navarro.
Alpred SL also works closely with Google Play Console and Google Ad Manager to monetize Estadio Deportivo through advertising services. "The paper is paywall-free and advertising is our main source of revenue. To make that work, we need to have lightning-quick response and page load times," Martínez Navarro explains. "Google Cloud provides us with a secure, stable infrastructure that is available 24/7 and scales as needed. This has a direct, positive impact on our bottom line."
"On match days, we have far more hits than usual, which was hard for our previous infrastructure to handle. With Google Kubernetes Engine, we can now upscale and downscale automatically."
—Adrián Martínez Navarro, Chief Operating Officer, Alpred SLLooking to the future with further B2B services
Alpred SL has a number of exciting new projects in the pipeline launching in 2023. "We plan to continue increasing our global portfolio of products and services," says Martínez Navarro.
One of these projects is a weather prediction service aimed at the aviation industry, which will provide airlines and pilots with precise, real-time weather information for their specific flight routes. "The aviation sector is naturally highly focused on security," says Martínez Navarro. "This new project will be developed on Google Cloud, because it provides the robust security and scalability by design our clients require."
The company is also continuing to develop Meteored’s B2B offer, with meteorological services aimed at specific industries, such as agriculture or renewable energies. The latter, for example, will focus on helping solar and wind plants predict precisely how much energy they will generate. "It’s early days, but we’re looking at Apigee API Management to help us develop these products," he continues. "Working with Google Cloud enables us to work better, faster, and get closer to our users. We look forward to seeing what the future will bring."
"Google Cloud provides us with a secure, stable infrastructure that is available 24/7 and scales as needed. This has a direct, positive impact on our bottom line."
—Adrián Martínez Navarro, Chief Operating Officer, Alpred SLTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About Alpred SL
Alpred SL drives a number of innovative online projects, including the leading weather prediction service Meteored, available in 50 countries, and the Seville-based Estadio Deportivo, which provides continuously updated sports news to Spanish-speaking fans around the world.