American Airlines Adopts Public Cloud Computing

June 30, 2017 / G C Network / Comments Off on American Airlines Adopts Public Cloud Computing

Leading Federal Integrators Address Tactical Cloud Computing

By G C Network | October 7, 2009

Yesterday during the first annual Government IT Conference and Expo, tactical cloud computing was cited as a critical component within this new paradigm. Joining me to address the issue were:…

Carpathia Creates Government Solutions Business Unit

By G C Network | October 6, 2009

In a strong statement of focus, Carpathia Hosting has announced the formation of Carpathia Government Solutions, a unit dedicated to providing solutions specifically for federal civilian and defense agencies. This…

INPUT FedFocus 2010

By G C Network | September 30, 2009

Please join me at the 7th Annual FedFocus Conference, November 5, 2009, at the Ritz Carlton in McLean, VA. This conference has been designed to provide crucial information on upcoming…

Dataline, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Unisys on Tactical Cloud Computing

By G C Network | September 25, 2009

I’m proud to announce that representatives from Lockheed Martin, SAIC, and Unisys will join me in a Tactical Cloud Computing “Power Panel” at SYS-CON’s 1st Annual Government IT Conference &…

GSA, DoD and NCOIC to Collaborate on Government Cloud Computing

By G C Network | September 22, 2009

Yesterday, during the NCOIC Cloud Computing Workshop, collaboration seemed to be the focus as Katie Lewin, GSA Cloud Computing Initiative Program manager, and Dan Risacher, DoD Cloud Computing Storefront project…

FederalNewsRadio Highlights Government Cloud Computing

By G C Network | September 20, 2009

Last week’s Apps.gov announcement was the latest steps in the government’s “at the quick step” march into cloud computing. FederalNewsRadio, a Washington metro area media fixture, highlighted the event with…

NCOIC Officially Launches Cloud Computing Working Group

By G C Network | September 14, 2009

On Wednesday, 9 September 2009 the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) Technical Council formally approved the creation of a Cloud Computing Working Group (CCWG). Organizationally this new working group…

1 Billion Mobile Cloud Computing Subscribers !!

By G C Network | September 10, 2009

Yes. That’s what I said! A recent EDL Consulting article cites the rising popularity of smartphones and other advanced mobile devices as the driving force behind a skyrocketing mobile cloud…

NCOIC Holding Full-Day Cloud Computing Workshop

By G C Network | September 4, 2009

The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium will be holding an all day Cloud Computing Workshop on September 21, 2009 in Fairfax, VA. Open to the public, this workshop will focus…

Pentagon Reviews Unisys Stealth

By G C Network | August 31, 2009

According to a Newtworkworld.com article, the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFC) is currently evaluating Unisys Stealth technology at the Joint Transformation Command for Intelligence (JTC-I) in Suffolk, Virginia. “Unisys…

Did you know that the reservations systems of the biggest carriers mostly run on a specialized IBM operating system known as Transaction Processing Facility (TPF). Designed by IBM in the 1960’s it was designed to process a large numbers of transactions quickly. Although IBM is still updating the code, the last major rewrite was about ten years ago. With all the major technologies changes since then, it’s clear that IBM has already accomplished a herculean task by keeping an application viable for over 50 years!

Just like Americas aging physical infrastructure, the airlines are suffering from years of minimal investment in their information technology. This critical failure has been highlighted by a number of newsworthy incidents including:

 

·         Delta, April 4, 2017 – Following storms that affected its Atlanta hub, Delta’s crew-scheduling systems failed, causing days of operational issues for the airline. Buzzfeed reports that flight staff were left stranded and unable to log in to internal systems. There were reportedly hours-long wait times on the crew-scheduling phone system.

 

·         United, April 3, 2017 – A problem with a system used by pilots for data reporting and takeoff planning forced United to ground all flights departing from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston for two hours. This is the third time that this system has been blamed for causing operational problems at United. Around 150 flights operated by United or its regionally flying partners out of IAH were delayed on the day, and about 30 were canceled, according to flightaware.com.

 

·         ExpressJet, March 20, 2017 – A system-wide outage at ExpressJet delayed flights it operates as Delta, United, and American Airlines for hours. The FAA issued a ground-stop at the airline’s request, preventing its planes from taking off. On the day, it had 423 delays and 64 cancellations, about a third of its scheduled operations, according to flightaware.com.

 

·         JetBlue, Feb. 23, 2017 – An outage at JetBlue forced the airline to check in passengers manually in Ft. Lauderdale and Nassau. Passengers were unable to use mobile boarding passes and check-in kiosks

 

While these incidents can be scary, American Airlines has recently taken a major step towards avoiding such events by migrating a portion of its critical applications to the cloud. In a recent announcement the carrier said that it will be moving it’s its customer-facing mobile app and their global network of check-in kiosks to the IBM Cloud. In addition, other workloads and tools, such as the company’s Cargo customer website, will also be moved to there. In a parallel effort, all of these applications will be rewritten so that they can leverage the IBM Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). This will be done using a micro-services architecture, design thinking, agile methodology, DevOps, and lean development.

 

“In selecting the right cloud partner for American, we wanted to ensure the provider would be a champion of Cloud Foundry and open-source technologies so we don’t get locked down by proprietary solutions” said Daniel Henry, American’s Vice President Customer Technology and Enterprise Architecture. “We also wanted a partner that would offer us the agility to innovate at the organizational and process levels and have deep industry expertise with security at its core. We feel confident that IBM is the right long-term partner to not only provide the public cloud platform, but also enable our delivery transformation.”

 

This latest announcement demonstrates why cloud computing is the future of just about every industry.  The cost savings, operational improvements, data security and business agility delivered by cloud based According to Patrick Grubbs, IBM’s vice president of travel and transportation, American Airlines will also be able to reduce cost by leveraging an inherent cloud computing ability of matching compute resources to the variable requirements that come from seasonal peaks.

 

This move by American Airline is sure to spur others towards a quicker adoption of cloud computing.  I look forward to the stampede.

( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)

 

Cloud Musings

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2017)

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in

G C Network

Cloud Computing

Cybersecurity