AWS: ‘Airports are migrating to the cloud to improve resiliency, gain agility, and cut costs’
In 2023 most companies will need to build new digital businesses to stay economically viable, according to The New Digital Edge by McKinsey.
The pandemic deepened digital usage and created new consumer expectations regarding availability, resiliency, and digital experiences. Consequently, the 2021 McKinsey survey found that top economic performers, in various sectors, are planning to accelerate digital adoption as a strategic differentiator.
Likewise, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has found airports and other travel organisations are accelerating their journey to the Cloud to address shifting customer and business needs.
- In 2023, companies will need to build new digital businesses to remain economically viable, as highlighted in The New Digital Edge by McKinsey.
- The pandemic has accelerated digital adoption, leading top economic performers to prioritize digital transformation as a strategic differentiator.
- Airports and travel organizations are increasingly migrating to the Cloud to address evolving customer needs and business requirements.
- A significant majority of airports are planning to invest in Cloud services to modernize infrastructure, enhance resiliency, and reduce operational costs.
- Different airports are at varying stages of Cloud adoption, with some already experienced in Cloud technologies while others are just beginning their digitization journey.
- AWS emphasizes starting the Cloud migration journey by addressing specific business problems, such as improving customer experience through responsive web and mobile applications.
Most airports now plan to migrate to the Cloud
Most airports plan to move to the Cloud - a recent SITA survey found 81% of CIO's are planning to invest in Cloud services. Their goal is to modernise their infrastructure "to improve resiliency and security," while reducing operational costs by "decreasing infrastructure management needs and eliminating spend on ageing infrastructure".
But airports are at different stages of Cloud adoption. Some airport technology leaders, experienced in Cloud technologies and migrations, have started their digitisation and modernisation journey. For others it can be difficult to know where to begin.
AWS says each journey starts with "a set of business problems" that an airport can solve by migrating to the Cloud.
"These journeys highlight frequent migration patterns that we see in airports, and can be tailored to unique priorities. You can get started with the one that best aligns to your business need", it says in a new ebook: Airport Cloud Migration Journeys.
Airports frequently prioritise the following migration patterns
Improving customer experience with responsive web and mobile apps
If you're unsure of where to start your cloud journey, websites and mobile applications are often the first to be migrated or re-factored to the Cloud.
In times of delay or disruption traffic can spike, impacting the customer experience and staff productivity. Bob Kwik, the Worldwide Head of Airports for AWS and author of the ebook says the company's infrastructure solves this problem as "it can grow and shrink to meet demand".
Airport web and mobile applications have a global audience, and Mr Kwik says that AWS can "improve the responsiveness of websites and applications by caching content regionally".
Many airports still host their website on-premises, often dealing with many websites for different purposes, such as staff, passengers, government agencies, and other third party users.
"These are cumbersome to manage and need to be provisioned for peak usage, leaving the hardware mostly underutilised", says Mr Kwik.
The underlying sources of data can be "siloed", leading to "different information shared with different user groups, causing operational inefficiencies," notes Mr Kwik.
Moving to a modern website running in the Cloud "solves these problems and makes the same information easily accessible to all staff and stakeholders", he explains.
Airports generally start with non-public websites before migrating and modernising passenger-facing websites and applications.
Some airports use this opportunity to update and refresh web applications, while others focus on migrating the existing applications to improve the service faster and build a modern infrastructure for long term digital transformation.
After migration it's easier to add functionality, such as location awareness or messaging, according to AWS.
Additionally, most eCommerce and mobile applications are built in the Cloud. "For airports with legacy systems, and are not ready to move to a new solution, migration will bring the benefits of improved user experience at a lower cost", says Mr Kwik.
Reducing data storage costs and improving redundancy
Airports typically store their data on-premises for all their operational systems such as baggage handling, passenger operations, parking, and retail.
But increasingly airports are getting new sources of data from third parties (such as airlines and third-party systems providers) to improve operational planning and forecasting, which is increasing demands on their storage infrastructure.
"This data is operationally critical and generally siloed to each system", says Mr Kwik. The data has different uses and storage requirements; some needs to be available for real-time planning, whereas other data is archived for security and audit purposes.
"Some airports back up this data to an off-airport data centre, but in many cases the data is stored on expensive disk arrays with tape back-up for longer term archive. Airports also have thousands of security (CCTV) cameras that are subject to regulation for storage duration (from days to months)[,] and that data needs to be stored so it can be easily retrieved in the event of an incident", explains Mr Kwik.
As such, it is easy to understand why airports would want to move back-up data to Cloud platforms to save costs and improve data resiliency. Once they realise the benefits, the next stage is to move security video storage (which is infrequently accessed and can be expensive to store 'on-premises').
According to Mr Kwik, data moved to AWS can be leveraged for data analytics, so airports will create a data lake to analyse the back-up data; real-time data feeds can also be added.
AWS data services are now also available for reporting, forecasting and - with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - predictions and decision support. Archived security video can also be used for computer vision analytics, such as passenger flow analysis.
Modernising infrastructure with improved resiliency and availability
For many airports the decision to move to the Cloud is driven by a need to modernise and improve their IT infrastructure.
On-premises systems and storage require regular hardware refreshes and often new hardware investment is necessary to cope with growth, new systems, and the increasing volumes of data.
Airports face large capital investments, compounded by the need to plan ahead, buy, and provision hardware that will meet the projected future peak demands.
The Cloud offers an attractive alternative, where airports can pay only for what they consume and, with the benefit of Cloud's massive scale - it costs less. Plus, it saves the airport's scarce IT resources the time and effort of building and managing physical infrastructure.
While most airports will have some experience with Cloud computing from their technology and service providers, for some this is the first time they are migrating workloads to platforms like AWS, says Mr Kwik.
Airports generally start by auditing all their on-premises workloads and prioritise the sequence of migration, starting with their least critical workloads. In some cases the priority is determined by "the criticality of the existing infrastructure prioritising phasing out old hardware (due to costly refresh or licence renewals) and addressing security risks", he says.
EBook: Airport Cloud Migration Journeys
For more than 16 years, AWS has supported customers seeking business modernisation, helping organisations of all sizes migrate workloads to the cloud. You can migrate any workload - applications, websites, databases, storage, physical or virtual servers - and even entire data centres from an on-premises environment, hosting facility to the cloud, or even from one cloud to another.
Download the Airport Cloud Migration Journeys ebook to learn cloud migration best practices for the five most common migration patterns.
Bok Kwik, Worldwide Head of Airports for AWS…
Bob Kwik is the Worldwide Head of Airports for AWS. His role is to support customers on their Cloud adoption journey.
He brings over 20 years of experience in the airport industry. Prior to joining AWS, Bob worked for leading aviation technology companies, and held regional and global leadership roles in sales, business development, technical design and product creation. He has lived and worked in Europe and the USA, and has travelled extensively for business and pleasure.
He holds a Masters degree in Engineering from Trinity College Dublin.
About AWS Travel and Hospitality…
AWS Travel and Hospitality is the global industry practice for Amazon Web Services (AWS), with a charter to support customers as they accelerate Cloud adoption.
Companies around the world, across every segment of the travel and hospitality industry - and of every size - run on AWS.
This includes industry leaders like Airbnb, Avis Budget Group, Best Western, Booking.com, Choice Hotels, DoorDash, Dunkin' Brands, Expedia Group, Korean Air, McDonald's, Ryanair, SiteMinder, Sysco, Toast, United Airlines and Wyndham Hotels. These companies and many others are transforming their businesses by leveraging technology to enhance customer experiences and increase operational efficiency.
For more information visit: AWS Travel and Hospitality