Just if we look at our own lives and see how every step we take is dependent on information, we can easily guess how much information or data, as we call it, may come into play in galactic affairs as are conducted by an airline industry. It is not so easy a guess actually. The international airport of Dubai handles more than 200,000 passengers a day which amounts to 80 million per year. While this records the very zenith of the airline business, no major airports fall too far behind.
Now if you consider merely the flight details and Ids of so many people you know that is more information than you will want to keep account for. And airlines have to deal with a double edged sword – they need to keep track of certain individuals for security reasons while they also have to comply with the regulations that protect personal data and individual information of the general customers. And if you want some icing on the cake, the airline also needs to store, process and analyse customer data for marketing purposes in order to improve the service and attract more customers. This somewhat sums up the importance of a highly functional data centre for running an airline.
Storing it all yet making certain parts available
The data storage procedure in an airline industry is influenced and shaped by a multitude of different factors but at the end it all needs to be stored. This data means all the information collected through the ticketing kiosks, online bookings, agents, and the personal information of the individuals. While this amounts to a humongous proportion of data, add to it the geo location data and fly lists. It is really difficult to bring forth the complete plethora of airline related data but it needs to be done. This is where the data centre comes into play. It consumes it all in a cloud and the algorithms allow the separation and acquisition of certain information.
Classification and back up
After the hectic flux of data is tracked and mapped it needs to be recorded and classified. While some data is required for security purposes some is needed for big data analytics. Analysing the data for marketing leverage is one big part of the game for airlines. The data centre creates a remote platform, independent of the main functions of the business, to manage and process the data.
Security
We live in sensitive times. Terrorism poses a omnipresent threat and flights would be sitting ducks to be shot at had the data been easily available. More precaution is taken to protect flight data and individual data than we may assume; it is an absolute necessity. Data centres keep the information remote and classified thus supporting or rather making possible the security schemes. It can also be used to provide required data to government security agencies.
Digitization and centralization of all functions
IT keeps an airline functional. The data centre pretty much makes sure that the flight takes off. On 8th August 2016, a data centre failure grounded the Delta Airlines in USA for a whole day. Earlier that year another American airline was forced to cancel 2300 flights due to a data centre failure. This is how important a data centre is. Apart from colleting and processing data it also controls the flow of critical data that determines the functionality of the airline. And since the entire IT infrastructure is often located at a data centre one may say that an airline is run from the data centre.
It appears that a data centre is actually pretty central to the being of an airline. The latter’s functionality is completely dependent on the former. And as the immense potential of data keeps unveiling itself and we move through constant development of data science and big data technologies the data centres are gaining more importance. The growth of the airline industry greatly depends upon data manipulation – better the data centre faster the airline grows.
