Thomas Cook servers take a trip

Travel firm signs server hosting deal with german IT services firm Lufthansa Systems

Travel agent Thomas Cook has signed a 10-year hosting agreement with Lufthansa Systems, which includes moving thousands of servers to datacentres in the UK and Germany.

Under the deal, Lufthansa Systems will handle the operation of 2,500 servers, 10,000 thin clients and Exchange messaging for 24,000 users.

Much of the infrastructure to support this will be housed in Lufthansa's new Tier 3 datacentre in Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

The rest will be hosted in Kelsterbach, close to Frankfurt, in Germany. The operations will be managed from Budapest.

Over the course of the contract, Lufthansa Systems will consolidate Thomas Cook's server estate through the deployment of virtualisation technology.

Last year, the travel company signed a major outsourcing deal with IT services giant Capgemini, for the replacement of several of its existing IT systems, including its holiday booking and reservation systems.