flydubai deployed its global booking platform on Platform Equinix, placing the Dubai-based airline in a stronger position to drive Digital Transformation.
The customer
From its home in Dubai, flydubai has created a network of more than 90 destinations.
Over the next decade, the airline will see its fleet grow by up to 237 aircraft. Since commencing operations in June 2009, flydubai has been committed to removing barriers to travel, creating free flows of trade and tourism and enhancing connectivity between different cultures across its ever-expanding network.
The flydubai fleet serves customers across Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Central and South-East Europe, the GCC and the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent.
The company wanted to upgrade its IT infrastructure to create one that was global, agile and flexible, capable of connecting to other carriers and providers of cloud services.
It looked to Equinix, a global company which connects the world’s leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most-interconnected data centres, for a solution.
Business challenge
Since commencing operations in 2009, the airline has shown no sign of slowing down. flydubai has marked its journey with a number of milestones that represent the scale of the ambition planned for the airline.
These have included:
- An expanding network: Created a network of more than 90 destinations in47countries
- Serving under-served markets: Opened up more than 71 new routes that did notpreviously have direct air links to Dubai or were not served by a UAE nationalcarrier from Dubai
- An efficient single fleet-type: Operates a single fleet-type of59 Boeing 737 aircraft
- Record-breaking orders: Placed the largest single-aisle aircraft orders in the region at the 2013 and 2017 editions of the DubaiAirshow
- Enhancing connectivity: Carried more than70 million passengers since it began operations in 2009
As a result of this growth, flydubai needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure to create a Digital Transformation capable of driving the distribution of services and controls closer to its customers, employees and partners.
A more responsive infrastructure would allow the business to deliver more digital services to its customers. It would also provide a more efficient use of IT resources, and as a result, the business would be better able to scale as required.
Solution
To solve the challenges, Equinix helped flydubai deploy a high-performance, resilient infrastructure within the Equinix Dubai (DX1) International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre.
By building a digital edge alongside the largest industry ecosystems on Platform Equinix, flydubai placed strategic control points next to its customers, clouds and networks to reach everywhere, interconnect everyone and integrate everything.
Ramesh Venkat, Chief Information Officer, flydubai, said: “In aviation terms, over the last 20 years, Dubai has proved to be a global gateway.
“Equinix DX1 promises the same in terms of digital connections. It provides us with connections to cloud service providers, along with onshore connections within the UAE.”
Business results
The Equinix solution provides flydubai with a range of efficient technology services with a redundant multilocation model. Being hosted in DX1 enables the airline to develop and deliver a range of best-of-breed digital services.
By hosting in Equinix DX1, the airline has acquired an infrastructure which allows it to deliver more digital services to customers. It also provides a more efficient use of IT resources which means that flydubai is better able to scale as required.
Other benefits have included providing an interconnection platform to connect to a choice of carriers and cloud providers and the strengthening of provision of digital services to the end customer, with improved data centre uptime and scale on tap.
“With online bookings, latency and service uptime are crucial,” said Venkat. “With Equinix we have the guarantee that our platforms have the uptime that is vital for our customers.”
In 52 markets across five continents, Equinix is where companies come together to realise new opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud strategies. In a digital economy where enterprise business models are increasingly interdependent, interconnection is essential to success.
Equinix operates the only global interconnection platform, sparking new opportunities that are only possible when companies come together.
Venkat, added: “Digital Transformation is key to the aviation industry, where our customers look for a complete and enhanced digital experience, right from booking their ticket to flying with us.
“Equinix has provided flydubai with an interconnected platform to connect the carrier to the cloud provider of our choice, along with the data centre uptime that is key for our customers.”
Jeroen Schlosser, Managing Director, Equinix MENA added that the trend of Digital Transformation is ‘revolutionising’ the MENA market, urging businesses to take innovative approaches such as cloud adoption.
“Interconnection is key to ensure full Digital Transformation and for this, businesses will need to grow their interconnection bandwidth capacity (data exchange capacity) to ensure full Digital Transformation,” he said.
“This will require a regional drive among IT chiefs to re-architect their companies’ IT platforms.
“Our Dubai data centre acts as regional hub, interconnecting a critical mass of industry participants in one place, allowing businesses to enhance performance and increase user satisfaction while reducing operational costs.”
