400 servers to one cloud - Finnair takes rare opportunity of low demand to drive systems migration

There is never a good time to migrate 70 applications hosted on approximately 400 servers across to the cloud, but the COVID-19 pandemic has presented an environment that has allowed the Nordic flag carrier Finnair to achieve a flexible, scalable system ready for the recovery in post-pandemic travel.

The investment, designed to ultimately deliver longer term cost savings, is complex, but the reduced travel demand has provided the ideal time for the airline to undertake the move, turning to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) partner Nordcloud to support the journey.

Nordcloud, now part of IBM, has 10 European hubs and more than 500 employees, and has now delivered more than 1,000 cloud projects for companies ranging from mid size to large corporates. Its Managed Cloud Migration allows companies to reduce the financial and operational risk of migrating to the cloud, which is a factor that often causes most alarm for businesses making the transition.

Finnair’s project was particularly big and complex, involving approximately 400 servers and 70 applications which were vital to Finnair’s daily operations.

The estate was a mixture of Windows, SAP, VMware, legacy Windows 2008, Windows 2003 and even Windows 2000, Oracle, and IBM AIX software. In addition, some parts of the technology estate, such as the ticketing booths, had not been touched for 20 years, and required updating before the migration was even possible.

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