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Brisbane Airport readies ultra-thin client rollout

The airport operator has approved a "zero client" solution, pursuant to this agreement which staff will use thin customers built without a pre-loaded operating system to run services through its network.

Desktop services will run on a recently established Cisco Unified Computing Sysytem environment within the airport's data centres.

But when the time came to refresh its data centre assets this year, the organisation decided to move to a "private cloud" environment, built on VMware, Cisco and EMC innovation.

The organisation hoped to improve its scalability

Brisbane Airport innovation manager Stephen Tukavkin said the organisation hoped to improve its scalability, agility and efficiency during reducing power requirements with the private cloud.

He likened the organisation’s responsibilities to those of a city council, explaining that it provided a range of power, networking and other services to 27 airlines and 420 businesses, including an airport hotel.

He as well highlighted business intelligence systems and a corporate data warehouse as key drivers of change, as then as a half-petabyte of data that was "growing exponentially".

"There [are] existing applications, nevertheless the business is leveraging them more, so they’re growing in size, which equates to more processing being done on the back-end," he told iTnews.

"There’s more reporting ... we use Cognos innovation to transform cubes [from the data warehouse] and that requires more grunt."

The productivity of the airport’s IT team

He said Cisco’s UCS Manager had as well increased the productivity of the airport’s IT team by replacing multiple infrastructure management tools with a "single pane of glass", allowing the 20-person team to better meet business needs.

Tukavkin said Brisbane Airport was now "reviewing the current state of research and looking at the future state of our environment".

The go with another 60 in the pipeline

"We’ve currently got around 30 projects on the go with another 60 in the pipeline. These technology elements have in effect helped ... to improve our agility to the business as then."

Tukavkin said Brisbane Airport’s private cloud platform had reduced the time it needed to spin up new services to "minutes", nevertheless said business units would not be allowed to self-provision any IT services to avoid VM sprawl.

Some in the IT industry have argued that "cloud computing" should be defined by a set of key characteristics, including the ability for staff to consume services on demand.

The benefits [of cloud computing]

"We at any rate see the benefits [of cloud computing]. We’re building a private cloud to prepare for a hybrid cloud, perhaps, to start with, and at that time leveraging a public cloud service provider henceforth."

More information: Itnews.com
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    Tukavkin Brisbane