Conclusions
Over the next five years, the maturing of cloud-enabled technologies will provide a compelling value proposition for the air transport industry to divest itself of the legacy IT infrastructure that is dragging on its operational efficiency and ability to innovate. Next generation data centres optimized with virtualization technologies will enable a different paradigm for delivering infrastructure, application platforms and software in a service oriented way. New opportunities to increase agility, lower costs and reduce the IT footprint will help airlines and airports achieve their business goals better, faster and cheaper. The normal choice of cloud computing models – public or private - is not open to the industry. Public cloud infrastructure cannot be depended on for reliability, resilience or performance. Furthermore, it does not meet the industry requirements for data privacy, security and corporate oversight. Without a viable choice, many air transport businesses have opted to build private clouds. But it is a compromise solution that reduces the potential and significantly undermines the financial case that makes cloud computing so appealing.
An effective way forward that combines the cost advantages of shared infrastructure with the security and consistency of service needed to run global air transport operations is a community cloud. It could also evolve as an integrated hub connecting the IT of industry partners, as well as provide a platform for independent service vendors to distribute their applications and services to the industry. The consumer world with online apps stores underlines how this can work and add massive value to customers in ways not yet thought of. The community cloud, acting as a brokerage type service would provide end users with the reassurance that each service or application meets industry standards and policies. A community cloud would be particularly appealing for medium and smaller airlines. By having access to next generation IT resources and sophisticated solutions at a fraction of the cost of building out in-house operations, it would enable them to stretch their IT budget to compete far more effectively with larger airlines backed by much larger financial resources. New check-in counters and even entire airports can be made operational at speeds not possible today. Staff can get fast access to the applications they need from any location with an Internet connection. Nevertheless, cloud computing only works as well as an organization manages it. It brings its own complexities in terms of network communications, service management and support capabilities needed to deliver a truly end-to-end solution. Extracting the full benefits requires an integrated, centralized IT Service Management system run by skilled IT experts in demand management, capacity management and critically, service integration. For further information about Cloud computing, visit www.ATIcloud.aero
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Š SITA 2011