Just as in other industries, cloud computing is having a massive impact in the air transport
industry (ATI). The cloud gives rapid, flexible and scalable access to everything from
infrastructure, such as virtual servers, to specific applications over the network. By allowing
organizations to consume IT resources virtually on demand, the cloud can increase business
agility, support new ways of working and cut costs. But the journey to the cloud is not the same
for every organization. Your route will depend on many factors such as the maturity of your IT
infrastructure, the applications you want to use in the cloud and your willingness to embrace
change. You can learn from the success of others and avoid their mistakes by looking at real
cloud computing use cases. We have included a number of these in the paper, all of which are
drawn from actual deployments. The flexibility that cloud offers is already helping meet many of
the demands that the ATI faces today, such as opening new and seasonal routes, managing
weather disruption and operating in environments where there is little IT support.
We look at
airlines that are using the cloud to deliver up-todate business applications and workspaces to
employees based in remote outstations; independent software vendors that are extending their
addressable market by converting their applications to run in the cloud; and IT departments that
are able to be more responsive to business demand for rapid deployment of new applications.
To get the most from cloud computing, you need to take a detailed look at your strategic needs,
business processes and IT environment. We have developed a four-step methodology that will
guide you on your journey to the cloud. It incorporates assessment, design, implementation and
operational support and works just as well for a single application deployment or a wider
transformation project.
Cloud computing is already well on its way to maturity in the ATI and there is no need to step
into the unknown anymore. By learning from the experiences of others you can benefit from
their successes and avoid their mistakes. We describe four very different use cases for cloud
computing that involve different applications and organizations in the ATI value chain. By
learning from these, you can begin to identify both the business benefits and the approach to
cloud that best suits your organization. YOUR WORKSPACE EVERYWHERE Delivering up-to-
date business applications and workspaces to remote employees is a recurring business
challenge for the ATI, particularly for airlines.
IT infrastructure managers need to deliver headquarters-like performance, data security and support cost-effectively to remote locations where local IT expertise is very limited and infrastructure can be obsolete. To address this need, we have developed Desktop-as- a Service (DaaS). It allows remote offices and outstations to access business-critical applications and workspaces over the network, without any requirement for on-site IT staff. Through this service, remote staff can have the same applications and service levels as those available to the corporate head office. Internally, we are using Desktop- as-a- Service to provide corporate IT solutions to our own 1,000 field technicians and agents working at airports. It gives them a cost-effective and secure workspace even when using 3rd- party infrastructure.
Desktop-as- a-Service has also allowed us to change our desktop procurement policy to local sourcing, local hardware support and BYOD. Essentially, our IT department takes ownership and responsibility for the “corporate virtual workspace”, which includes Lotus Notes and Microsoft Office. We then enforce clear demarcation between this virtual workspace and the computer it is running on, which leaves field technicians and agents free to install and run their own local software and data. SAAS ENABLEMENT Cloud computing also offers an excellent opportunity for independent software vendors (ISV) to massively extend the market for their applications. By converting applications to run in the cloud and moving to a pay-as- you-use model, they become much more attractive to smaller organizations that don’t want to invest in traditional software licenses. Working with your software architects using cloud assessment and design workshops, we transition your applications to the ATI Cloud. Our virtual data centers adapt to the specific architecture of each application and deliver a fully-virtualized and highly-scalable multi-tenant environment. Once your applications are SaaS-enabled, your customers can go live in as little as a few hours. This compares to several months provisioning time in the previous licensing model, which relied on dedicated physical IT infrastructure at the customer’s premises. We use the same approach to SaaS-enable our own applications. Already we have on-boarded seven of our most mission-critical applications, including BagManager and AIRCOM Server.
NEW APPLICATION HOSTING One of the core activities of the IT department is to deploy new applications. However, with applications increasingly being chosen by line-of- business departments, the IT department often only finds out that an application needs deploying when the request arrives. This short notice can cause significant problems if the infrastructure to deploy the application is not in place, which is frequently the case in organizations aiming to maximize the use of their IT infrastructure. Any subsequent push back from the IT department can then be misinterpreted as it being not business-oriented enough. Cloud can provide the answer to this scenario via Infrastructure-as- a-Service (IaaS). It allows you to provision the virtual servers you need on demand and deploy the application right away. All of this can be done directly over the Corporate IP VPN network, with no need for business- critical data to traverse the Internet. It is particularly well suited to companies who have existing cloud services delivered via the ATI Cloud.
IT infrastructure managers need to deliver headquarters-like performance, data security and support cost-effectively to remote locations where local IT expertise is very limited and infrastructure can be obsolete. To address this need, we have developed Desktop-as- a Service (DaaS). It allows remote offices and outstations to access business-critical applications and workspaces over the network, without any requirement for on-site IT staff. Through this service, remote staff can have the same applications and service levels as those available to the corporate head office. Internally, we are using Desktop- as-a- Service to provide corporate IT solutions to our own 1,000 field technicians and agents working at airports. It gives them a cost-effective and secure workspace even when using 3rd- party infrastructure.
Desktop-as- a-Service has also allowed us to change our desktop procurement policy to local sourcing, local hardware support and BYOD. Essentially, our IT department takes ownership and responsibility for the “corporate virtual workspace”, which includes Lotus Notes and Microsoft Office. We then enforce clear demarcation between this virtual workspace and the computer it is running on, which leaves field technicians and agents free to install and run their own local software and data. SAAS ENABLEMENT Cloud computing also offers an excellent opportunity for independent software vendors (ISV) to massively extend the market for their applications. By converting applications to run in the cloud and moving to a pay-as- you-use model, they become much more attractive to smaller organizations that don’t want to invest in traditional software licenses. Working with your software architects using cloud assessment and design workshops, we transition your applications to the ATI Cloud. Our virtual data centers adapt to the specific architecture of each application and deliver a fully-virtualized and highly-scalable multi-tenant environment. Once your applications are SaaS-enabled, your customers can go live in as little as a few hours. This compares to several months provisioning time in the previous licensing model, which relied on dedicated physical IT infrastructure at the customer’s premises. We use the same approach to SaaS-enable our own applications. Already we have on-boarded seven of our most mission-critical applications, including BagManager and AIRCOM Server.
NEW APPLICATION HOSTING One of the core activities of the IT department is to deploy new applications. However, with applications increasingly being chosen by line-of- business departments, the IT department often only finds out that an application needs deploying when the request arrives. This short notice can cause significant problems if the infrastructure to deploy the application is not in place, which is frequently the case in organizations aiming to maximize the use of their IT infrastructure. Any subsequent push back from the IT department can then be misinterpreted as it being not business-oriented enough. Cloud can provide the answer to this scenario via Infrastructure-as- a-Service (IaaS). It allows you to provision the virtual servers you need on demand and deploy the application right away. All of this can be done directly over the Corporate IP VPN network, with no need for business- critical data to traverse the Internet. It is particularly well suited to companies who have existing cloud services delivered via the ATI Cloud.