Airline benefits of using the Amadeus community cloud

Cloud, Community and Collaboration

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Index

Index ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 2

Overview ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3

What is ‘cloud computing’? .............................................................................................................................................................. 3

Thebenefittobusinesses ...................................................................................................................................................... 4

The downsides of public cloud computing ..................................................................................................................... 5

The Amadeus Community private Cloud ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Thebenefittoairlines ............................................................................................................................................................. 6

Amadeus’ data centre – the ‘cloud engine’ ................................................................................................................... 7

Open systems: the ‘building blocks’ of cloud computing .......................................................................................... 8

Virtualisation‘unlockstheefficiencies’ofcloudcomputing .................................................................................... 8

Amadeus’ SaaS Portfolio ........................................................................................................................................................ 8

Glossary of terms ................................................................................................................................................................................. 9

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OverviewCloud 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, servicequality,operationalstability,speedorflexibility.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 beamplifiedduringthecurrentperiodofcostreduction.The

keybenefitsofcloudcomputingarethatthehardwareand

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 2013.

(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 2013.

(source: Renub research, 2010)

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The benefit to businesses

Thebenefitofcloudcomputingtobusinessesisfive-fold:

cheaper, quicker, up-to-date, scalable and accessible from

anywhere.

l 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.

In 2009 cloud services made up 5% of global IT spend, andthisfigureisexpectedtodoubleby2013.

(source: IDC, Cloud Computing 2010)

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’.

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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 ofconfidentialcustomerdataandmustcomplywitha

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,indemnityandprivacyareallsignificant.

The Amadeus Community private CloudThe 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 hardwareeconomyofscalebenefitsofthecloud,withoutthe

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 2014. 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.

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The benefit to airlines

Airlines want their IT costs to be variable as their business

demandsfluctuate.AirlinesusingtheAmadeusCommunity

Cloudbenefitfrom:

l 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 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.

93% of airlines will have, or plan to have, IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and virtualisation by the end of 2014. The top reasons for adopting IaaS were for improvedflexibility(81%)andtoreducecosts(61%).

(source: SITA IT Trends Survey 2011)

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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:

l Multiple independent data centres and server rooms within

the same complexl back-up generators that have 3 days of diesel supply in the

event of a power outagel four separate major telecoms links from multiple suppliers to

prevent network failurel server architecture designed to ensure there is no single point

of failure

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.

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).

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Open systems: the ‘building blocks’ of cloud computing

Open systems are the technology building blocks based on

universalstandards,whichoffercompleteflexibilityand

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.

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 significantamountsofelectricityandsubsequentlyCO2

emissions per year.

Amadeus’ SaaS Portfolio

Amadeus provides a range of SaaS or software solutions as a

service to airlines, hosting the applications in Erding.

l 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.

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)

55% of airlines have already moved onto new generation IT infrastructure by implementing virtualization in their datacentres.Thatfigurewillbecomealmostuniversalover the next few years with only 6% of airlines having no plan to migrate.

(source: Airline IT Trends Survey, SITA, 2011)

l Amadeus’ e-Commerce suite, a set of solutions including the

e-Retail booking engine which can manage an airline’s entire

e-commerce operation. l Amadeus e-Ticket Server, which enables airlines to issue and

manage e-tickets.l Revenue Integrity, a suite of solutions to improve the integrity

of data which minimises revenue leakage.

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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:

l 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.

l 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).

l 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.

l 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.

l 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.

l 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.

l 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 possiblyapplicationhostingenvironmentconfigurations.