Cloud, Community and Collaboration Airline benefits of using the Amadeus community cloud

Transcription

1 Cloud, Community and Collaboration Airline benefits of using the Amadeus community cloud

2 Index Index... 2 Overview... 3 What is cloud computing?... 3 The benefit to businesses... 4 The downsides of public cloud computing... 5 The Amadeus Community private Cloud... 5 The benefit to airlines... 6 Amadeus data centre the cloud engine... 7 Open systems: the building blocks of cloud computing... 8 Virtualisation unlocks the efficiencies of cloud computing... 8 Amadeus SaaS Portfolio... 8 Glossary of terms

3 Overview Cloud computing has been an information technology buzzword for many years. Succeeding the mainframe, the PC and the World Wide Web, cloud computing is now going mainstream. Some say it is the latest and loudest technology trend transforming the way we do business on a global scale. But others say cloud computing is hyped, and will complement traditional models of computing rather than replace them. The provision of IT services over the Internet and networks is not a new concept, although the name cloud computing is. In fact, Amadeus is an innovator in cloud computing and has been providing cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) to customers for 20 years with its range of airline IT solutions such as Altéa - and its distribution services. Both IT and Distribution services have allowed customers to access computing resources remotely, from a private cloud, and to pay for them on a variable transaction basis. What is cloud computing? Computing clouds are network connected data centres, containing up to hundreds of thousands of servers hosting multiple web applications, which enable users to obtain computing capabilities regardless of their physical location, thanks to the internet. Put simply, the cloud provides cheap, easy, on-demand access to unlimited IT infrastructure and applications, anytime, anywhere and from any device that can access the Internet. Businesses are constantly striving to consume IT services in the most cost-effective way, while not compromising security, service quality, operational stability, speed or flexibility. Public, private or hybrid cloud computing, dynamic IT, Software as a Service; these are all different ways of looking at the basic problem of providing the right computing capacity, at the right time, and at the right price. One reason that cloud computing is such a hot topic is because of its current and predicted growth. As a cheaper way for businesses to acquire and use IT, its adoption is expected to be amplified during the current period of cost reduction. The key benefits of cloud computing are that the hardware and software are managed on a shared infrastructure, and it works just like a utility you only pay for what you need, upgrades are automatic and scaling up or down is almost instantaneous. Microsoft International President, Jean-Philippe Courtois, said the company will spend 90% of its $9.6 billion research and development on cloud strategy this year. (source: Bloomberg news, April 2011) Cloud computing is one of the four big trends that will change IT in the next few years and the analyst house estimates the cloud market at $150 billion by (source: Peter Sondergaard, SVP of research, Gartner 2010) Worldwide, the cloud computing market is growing at a rapid rate and is expected to exceed $25 billion by the end of (source: Renub research, 2010) 3

4 Cloud, Community and Collaboration The benefit to businesses The benefit of cloud computing to businesses is five-fold: cheaper, quicker, up-to-date, scalable and accessible from anywhere. In 2009 cloud services made up 5% of global IT spend, and this figure is expected to double by (source: IDC, Cloud Computing 2010) An IT provider will host services for multiple companies; sharing complex infrastructure is cost-efficient and businesses only pay for what they actually use. l The most basic cloud services work out of the box; for more complex software and database solutions, cloud computing allows companies to skip the hardware procurement and capital expenditure phase. l Most providers constantly update their software offering, adding new features as they become available, negating the need to perform software loads on servers and PCs spread across multiple locations. l The provision of a scalable system allows companies to scale quickly supporting fast business growth or seasonal spikes because cloud systems are built to cope with sharp increases in workload. l Cloud services are designed to be used from a distance, so mobile workforces can access most systems on the go. l 4

5 The downsides of public cloud computing The very nature of cloud computing is that it is a utility offering a standard product at a reasonable price. As with any commodity supply model, it suits the vendor to be at full capacity. If more than one customer wants extra capacity, resources become scarce. Then there is the issue of security and compliance. As an example, airlines and their suppliers deal with a huge raft of confidential customer data and must comply with a huge variety of international and supranational regulations. Complying with these regulations can be a very costly exercise and one that public cloud providers might not want to bear. Indemnity is another point; if a cloud service fails, who is responsible? While it may be possible to replace one s own in-house computing capacity with cloud services, who manages the agreements, and can cloud providers afford to offer service level agreements that give the sort of indemnity that some businesses will demand?. In short, whilst public cloud computing is suitable for the horizontal applications that all industries use such as messaging or Customer Relationship Management platforms - it may not be suited to high-demand, highly regulated applications where compliance, indemnity and privacy are all significant. The Amadeus Community private Cloud The Amadeus Community Cloud consists of Amadeus portfolio of SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions, and its community hosting and data processing facility based in Erding, which delivers on airlines IT hardware needs. The community cloud is supported by Amadeus technology leadership in open systems architecture, virtualisation, software development, secure networking and resilience. Business critical applications such as reservations, inventory management and departure control are best suited to dedicated IT resources managed in a private environment. Amadeus Community Cloud model delivers the equivalent of private cloud computing, which is the right approach for airlines critical systems because it provides the software and hardware economy of scale benefits of the cloud, without the downside of security or performance risks. For example, if an airline attempted to run its own systems, the TCO (total cost of ownership), would be much higher. 88% of airlines will have, or plan to have, SaaS by The top reasons for adoption of SaaS were to reduce costs (72%) and to increase service levels (61%). (source: SITA IT Trends Survey 2011) Amadeus ultimate goal is to have the capability to adjust infrastructure capacity dynamically and in real-time, to adapt to changes in workload and demand. Thanks to Amadeus investment in open systems (96% of Amadeus infrastructure runs on open systems), scaling up at times of peak demand and adding additional hardware for airlines is a quick and simple exercise. Amadeus has been providing cloud computing related services for 20 years with its range of airline IT solutions such as Altéa - and its distribution services. 5

6 Cloud, Community and Collaboration The benefit to airlines Airlines want their IT costs to be variable as their business demands fluctuate. Airlines using the Amadeus Community Cloud benefit from: 93% of airlines will have, or plan to have, IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and virtualisation by the end of The top reasons for adopting IaaS were for improved flexibility (81%) and to reduce costs (61%). A variable cost model allowing them to pay for what they consume. Amadeus runs a transaction business model so airlines IT costs are in line with their business volume and therefore revenues. l Pooling IT resources in the data centre and making use of virtualisation means IT costs are reduced, when compared to each airline attempting to construct its own data processing facility. l Increased flexibility - by delivering software, data processing and IT as a service, Amadeus can service its customers quickly, effectively connecting and migrating them. l (source: SITA IT Trends Survey 2011) Amadeus Community Cloud means airline IT teams can concentrate on strategic initiatives the maintenance of the systems is handled by Amadeus. l Scalability - being able to access additional computing power on request, is of great importance to airlines. l 6

7 Amadeus data centre the cloud engine One of the main risks for airlines that adopt cloud computing is a service outage, which is not something airlines can risk as business critical passenger service systems are the lifeblood of airline operations. Amadeus Erding data centre is designed to minimise the risk of failure with: Multiple independent data centres and server rooms within the same complex back-up generators that have 3 days of diesel supply in the event of a power outage four separate major telecoms links from multiple suppliers to prevent network failure server architecture designed to ensure there is no single point of failure Amadeus data centre in Erding is one of the largest civil data centres in the world and boasts 5 petabytes of storage. 1 petabyte is equal to 1 million gigabytes. To put that into context, if you shoot 100 photos a day for 80 years at 5 Mb per photo, you d still have 985,000 gigabytes free. (source: Amadeus, 2011). In the unlikely event that the main data centre in Erding is unavailable due to a major disaster, Amadeus also maintains a separate disaster recovery site over 40 KM away. 7

8 Open systems: the building blocks of cloud computing Open systems are the technology building blocks based on universal standards, which offer complete flexibility and interoperability between different IT environments, solutions and products. Amadeus open systems are like LEGO bricks. They provide the ability to easily build and reshape solutions to meet changing traveller needs. Today, 96% of Amadeus technology operates on the latest Open Systems technologies, and Amadeus is on target to operate completely on open systems far ahead of its competition. (source: Amadeus) Virtualisation unlocks the efficiencies of cloud computing Virtualisation is one of the main cornerstones of cloud computing that allows the creation of multiple virtual servers or virtual machines - inside a physical server. Virtualisation has been in use in Erding for over 10 years, allowing servers to handle multiple applications, rather than just one. Previously a server may have only been used at 5% capacity with no ability to access the other 95%. Now server resources can be used to their full extent with excess capacity being applied to manage other applications. Each deployment of a Virtual Server saves significant amounts of electricity and subsequently CO2 emissions per year. 55% of airlines have already moved onto new generation IT infrastructure by implementing virtualization in their data centres. That figure will become almost universal over the next few years with only 6% of airlines having no plan to migrate. (source: Airline IT Trends Survey, SITA, 2011) Amadeus SaaS Portfolio Amadeus provides a range of SaaS or software solutions as a service to airlines, hosting the applications in Erding. The Altéa Customer Management Suite, a full suite of solutions to manage all elements of the customers journey from booking to baggage collection including Reservations, Inventory and both the Customer Management and Flight Management modules of Departure Control. Amadeus e-commerce suite, a set of solutions including the e-retail booking engine which can manage an airline s entire e-commerce operation. Amadeus e-ticket Server, which enables airlines to issue and manage e-tickets. Revenue Integrity, a suite of solutions to improve the integrity of data which minimises revenue leakage. 8

9 Glossary of terms Cloud terms and acronyms can be confusing. The cloud is often referred to as a private, public or hybrid cloud and essentially that means the following: Private cloud is when a business receives its applications, storage and data processing capability from a dedicated infrastructure which can be provided internally or by an outsourced provider, such as Amadeus providing services from our Erding data centre. Infrastructure is shared amongst authorised users dynamically, but is not available to the public. Public cloud means applications and computing services are provided across the public internet in a shared infrastructure environment, for example Google Apps or Amazon EC2. This tends to be suited to less business-critical applications, and is a popular choice for SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises). A hybrid cloud is a combination of the two approaches where some IT services are provided by dedicated IT infrastructure and some, usually less business critical, are provided from a shared provider like Amazon or Google. Virtualisation and hypervisors: Virtualisation allows the creation of multiple virtual servers known as virtual machines - inside a physical server. These virtual machines are managed by a hypervisor, which allows multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host. These two technologies allow cloud providers to create and manage virtual machines easily and quickly for customers. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) refers to companies making use of centrally managed hardware and data processing services run by a third party supplier. Infrastructure services are accessed via private networks or the internet. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over either a private network connection or the internet. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a way to rent hardware, operating systems, storage and network capacity over the internet. Whilst the user does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, they do have control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations. 9