If you've been paying attention to the news, you might have realized that the U.S. National Conventions happened last month. As the Official Network Provider for both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, Cisco helped transform Cleveland and Philadelphia into mini smart, connected cities to help the conventions go off without a hitch. It wasn't easy -conventions involve lots of people, set-up time, and, of course, balloons. Here are the RNC & DNC by the numbers:

RNC:

• 32 days-How long they had to set up Quicken Loans Arena for the RNC, since the Cleveland Cavaliers had just been playing there for the NBA finals.
• 50,000-The approximate number of people who traveled to Cleveland for the RNC, including about15,000journalists, 2,472delegates and2,302alternate delegates.
• 125,000 -The number of balloons dropped on the last night

DNC:

• 58 days-How long they had to set up Wells Fargo Center for the DNC.
• 50,000-The approximate number of people who traveled to Philadelphia for the DNC, including about20,000journalists,4,760Democratic delegates and347alternate delegates.
• 100,000 -The number of balloons dropped on the last night, including extra-large 36-inch ones

So what exactly did Cisco supply to help connect the conventions?

• 300access points across Cleveland and Philadelphia
• 80video security cameras
• Around2,000desk and video-enabled phones
• 12TelePresence units
• 400switches and routers
• 2UCS servers for RNC Teleprompters to store and retrieve speeches during Convention

What did that network help power?

• 28.5 terabytes-The amount of data used over the four days of the RNC in downtown Cleveland -that's the equivalent of streaming video for 3,560 days straight!
• 50.4 terabytes-The amount of data used over the four convention days at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. Most of this was from social media applications, followed by video viewing and Web browsing.

Cisco also provided extensive network security utilizing ASA5585s with FirePower modules, FireSight, Identity Services Engine (ISE), and StealthWatch. In addition, Network Management was provided by PRIME Infrastructure 3.0 for wired and wireless devices, with Video Surveillance Manager (VSM) for viewing real-time or recorded video footage.

To learn more about Cisco's role in powering these#ConnectedConventions, check out this great recap video:

You can also read our first blog post, and don't miss the We Are Cisco feature on Larry Hutchins, a Cisco network consulting engineer who helped lead the#ConnectedConventions effort.