TECH TALK
CLOUD COMPUTING IS A HIT WITH THE AVIATION MARKET
BY JOHN PAWLICKI | OPM RESEARCH
FOR THE PAST ~15 YEARS, THE USE OF CLOUD COMPUTING HAS BEEN GROWING ACROSS ALL INDUSTRIES, AND ALL AROUND THE WORLD. THE ADOPTION OF THIS TECHNOLOGY HAS GROWN QUICKER IN RECENT YEARS, ESPECIALLY AS MORE SOFTWARE AND SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE HONING OFFERINGS FOR EACH INDUSTRY, TO MEET THEIR UNIQUE NEEDS.
Due to the nature of aviation and the interrelated travel
industry, cloud computing is a natural fit for companies that need to have personnel and assets in multiple locations, but do not want to procure, install and manage computing and networking gear in each site where data is needed. This is why renting servers or data storage which is managed by a third-party specialist and accessible anywhere a network connection is available is so enticing to IT departments. Globally, all industries are facing increased awareness that customer experience is vital. In the case of airlines and travel companies, there is a realization that consumers not only want a high-quality product at a reasonable price, but that a more seamless process occurs with their personal needs and desires accounted for. Business customers who procure aircraft parts and services also want a more seamless process with less manual handling of documents, transactional information and the delivery of products. When all data from a whole global operation is handled
from a singular (cloud-based) source, airlines/MROs/ distributors/service-providers are all better able to handle the particular needs of their customers around the world. Each and every customer will have their profiles and requirements identified so that personalized services can be readily handled. Before we get into where aviation uses cloud computing, let’s touch on exactly what it is.
A VERY CONDENSED OVERVIEW OF CLOUD COMPUTING
The acceptance of cloud computing services has been steadily growing since it took root when Amazon launched the revamped Amazon Web Services in 2006. Others soon followed, and a new sub-industry was born in the Information Technology (IT) sector. Most of the more well-known IT services companies have sort of service available, with notable ones being Microsoft,
16
DOMmagazine.com | mar 2020
Google, Oracle and most of the network communications providers. Many of today’s critical applications are integrated into various cloud services, specifically Google and other browser-based email providers, DropBox, cloud backup services, among thousands of others. According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is defined as
the “on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet. Large clouds, predominant today, often have functions distributed over multiple locations from central servers. If the connection to the user is relatively close, it may be designated an edge server.” With the continued growth of smartphones, tablets and
other remote computing devices, cloud-based applications become more pervasive due to the reason that these devices can use smaller apps (applications) which off- load functionality onto remote servers to handle user requests. Such an arrangement allows for a device to not be overwhelmed with installing a complete application or database, and instead, uses data from a server on demand (am oversimplifying of how a small app is often used on a smartphone, for the sake of brevity). Per NIST (National Institute Standards ), three basic models of cloud computing services are defined (and shown in Figure 1): 1. SaaS (Software as a Service): In general, the user has no control over the primary infrastructure used, such as the operating system, network configuration or storage. Customers use the provided applications hosted by the service provider.
2. PaaS (Platform as a Service): With this implementation, customers have no choice on the core cloud infrastructure, but are typically able to manage the applications they use.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
