SITA signs up Orange to support air industry cloud

Air travel IT group SITA has signed a global network agreement with Orange Business Services to support the deployment of its cloud computing service, which is aimed at the whole air transport industry.

Orange will provide the MPLS network to connect the six datacentres dotted across the globe that will host the computing horsepower to support SITA’s Air Transport Industry (ATI) Cloud.

The ATI Cloud, first unveiled in April 2011, will provide infrastructure, platform, desktop and software-as-a-service offerings to businesses operating in the air transport industry.

SITA expects air transport firms to embrace cloud as many of the players have to co-operate on a daily basis, in order to ensure the smooth running of airports. This places an emphasis on IT systems with a high degree of interoperability, making cloud services more attractive, said Francesco Violante, chief executive of SITA.

“We will also be able to provide a consistent level of IT service at each site from which a user operates,” he added.

The airline industry is also affected by huge swings in demand – both daily and seasonal – which increases the attraction of cloud services. According to Violante, businesses easily ramp up IT provision to cope with peak demand, but do not have to buy the necessary equipment up front.

Orange and SITA are still in the process of securing hosting services at datacentres, which will be located in Frankfurt, Atlanta, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.