- Global Aviation Cloud as a pioneer in aviation IT: applications as managed services in 24/7 operation
- Airlines worldwide rely on cloud-supported IT solutions for flight operations, ground operations and financial management
Raunheim, February 23, 2023: Lufthansa Systems offers airlines an innovative managed cloud service based on the Global Aviation Cloud (GAC). Developed specifically for the needs and security standards of airlines, the future-proof deployment model allows airlines to focus on their core business and quickly adapt to dynamic business requirements.
One-stop-shop in highly secure, advanced cloud environment
Every day, airlines around the world face the challenge of having to respond quickly to unforeseen events in order to minimize their impact on overall flight operations. Lufthansa Systems’ GAC offers a complete service from a single source while also including hosting and the necessary infrastructure. Currently, the flight operations solution Lido, the NetLine product line for ground operations and the finance solution SIRAX are available in the Global Aviation Cloud.
The technical structure is based on the combination of the various cloud environments of different providers, a so-called multi-cloud approach. This requires close cooperation with strategic partners in order to offer customers the best possible user experience and to ensure maximum security and resilience by combining the strengths of the different clouds. The collaboration enables the deployment of IT solutions in a global delivery model with end-to-end responsibility in a secure cloud environment. The multi-cloud approach includes the setup of basic Infrastructure-as-a-Service components for subsequent application deployment by Lufthansa Systems. This works through a set of centralized services that comply with both aviation data protection regulations as well as the current security standards and requirements. All 24/7 cloud operation tasks follow the same standards and processes as the application-related operations units.
The multi-cloud approach offers two key benefits to airlines: critical revenue impacting applications can be deployed across multiple clouds with active workloads and disaster recovery. This creates redundancy in case of complete outages on one cloud provider. Availability of applications in different regions across different cloud providers can help effectively meet compliance, regulatory and governance requirements.
“Equally important for airlines as a dynamic supply chain are IT security and reliability, as high-quality standards have to be met on a daily basis. According to users, the flight planning area, is the most important IT application in the event of a malfunction or breakdown. For this reason, more and more airlines are choosing to switch to cloud hosting from Lufthansa Systems,” explained Susan Linden, Head of Architecture, Technology and IT Operations at Lufthansa Systems. “Using our Lido Flight 4D solution as an example, we increased the security against failure by installing the application on two different cloud platforms, i.e. taking a multi-cloud approach.”
To date, Lufthansa Systems operates over 300 subscriptions in the Global Aviation Cloud. The focus is on automation and multi-cloud deployments for cost efficiency, high availability and service delivery in multi-cloud environments using the public cloud providers Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
Artificial intelligence: NetLine/Ops ++ aiOCC also in the Global Aviation Cloud in the future.
Flight operations controllers make complex decisions every day. To find the best solution, multiple sources of information have to be analyzed within minutes. The recently introduced NetLine/Ops ++ aiOCC module uses the capabilities of artificial intelligence. It translates information from various sources into specific, actionable recommendations. It monitors all events relating to the aircraft, rotation, passengers, and crew and detects risks of delay at an early stage. NetLine/Ops ++ aiOCC makes timely proposals to proactively adjust the flight plan, thus increasing the efficiency of flight operations. NetLine/Ops ++ aiOCC automatically generates suggestions to improve overall operations and provides the Operations Controller with additional information on the effects of the proposed solution.
