THAI flying high with cloudbased bmc software

“THAI realised a cloud-based solution could deliver the speed that the business needed without sacrificing the governance and efficiency that the IT group depended upon,” Saroj Yuttatri, vice president of information technology services, said last week.
“We worked closely with BMC Consulting Services, which developed an installation and configuration blueprint that led to BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management being fully deployed in our test, development and production environments.”
THAI added Cloud Lifecycle Management to its already extensive portfolio of products from BMC Software.
The national carrier has more than 24,000 employees and a fleet of nearly 100 aircraft deployed around the world to serve the needs of millions of flying customers each year. Agility – from the individual employee all the way to the entire business – is key to success in the rapidly evolving business of commercial flight.
To enable this culture, the airline has made significant investments in leading-edge information technologies to streamline and manage its operations. THAI had a robust and reliable IT infrastructure, but its largely manual server and business service provisioning process introduced roadblocks for business users who wanted to quickly roll out new applications to better serve customers.
The airline’s IT department realised that cloud computing offered the opportunity for even greater reform that would more tightly integrate IT processes with business service priorities, which were themselves shaped by an overarching desire to continue to delight customers.
Last August, the airline went live with a state-of-the-art cloud computing system, allowing key business personnel to automatically dial up computer power, storage and business services necessary to stay ahead of the game. By adopting Cloud Lifecycle Management, THAI achieved the following benefits:
lBusiness solutions that might have taken weeks to provision are now up and running 85 per cent faster than before.
lWith transparent access to the service level catalogue and a granular understanding of the costs associated with information technology, business users are now in the driver’s seat.
lIT administrators have confidence that proper governance processes are being observed and that the BMC solution automatically manages the day-to-day management of patches, upgrades and maintenance required by the newly deployed solution.
lIT professionals who were spending much of their time manually provisioning servers and business services have been redeployed to more strategic IT activities.
“The business benefits are clear. Instead of waiting two, three or four weeks, business users can go into the portal, select the marketing service they want, provision the number of servers and storage systems they need and then share the user IDs of people who will have access to the system. As a result they get a faster go-to-market in a competitive situation,” said Wannikar Chuanpra-phan, manager for systems and network technical support.
Ultimately, THAI will provide wide access to the platform, allowing authorised business executives to increase the computing power and services they deem necessary to maintain and grow the airline’s competitive position.
The reputation of THAI is unsurpassed in the airline industry. Famous for its ability to both retain customers and attract new ones, THAI drives a culture of rapid innovation, agility and operational efficiency in the face of fluctuating market conditions and changing passenger preferences.
The company has been a tremendous success in an industry filled with many challenges, posting continued strong growth.