BA invests in grid computing

British Airways (BA) has just completed an implementation of a grid computing architecture from data integration specialist Informatica.

The architecture is being installed to help the company operate smoothly and adhere to rigorous service level agreements (SLAs), enhancing platform scalability at the same time.

It added that the grid architecture also reduces administrative overheads.

At the time of writing BA wasn't able to say how much the architecture cost.

Grid computing is the process of applying the resources of many computers in a network to a single problem at the same time.

This deployment is the latest development in the airline's continuing efforts to standardise on Informatica's technology.

BA has been using Informatica's platform to deliver data on customers and cargo across the organisation since 2005, when it first implemented Informatica PowerCenter Standard Edition — a component of the Informatica Platform — to help access and integrate its information assets.

Since then, the Informatica Platform has been used across the airline to enable the mining of data for analytics and improve operational efficiency.

"As the airline completes its merger with Iberia, we look forward to working with Informatica to accelerate and de-risk the merger activity," commented Ian Johnston, IT operations manager, BA.