15 November 2011

London Southend chooses a leading-edge virtualised IT infrastructure

Working closely with Ultra Electronics Airport Systems, Southend have chosen a leading-edge virtualised IT infrastructure. Following successful Ultra projects for Finavia and regional airports across France, Southend will become the first UK airport to install this kind of fully virtualised architecture.

All specialist systems including CUTE (check-in desks, ticket office, boarding gates, security check), FIDS/AODB, LDCS and Billing will be delivered to Southend over a fast and reliable network connection from a remote data centre.

The virtualised approach not only provides Southend with all the benefits of a highly available server architecture protected by UPS, video surveillance and 24-hour security protection, without the need to build and maintain an on-site core room, but the additional scalability is crucial given their forecast passenger growth over the next few years.

Initial acceptance testing of the system is to be completed at the data centre before physical access to the terminal can be granted, thus lowering the risk and reducing timescales for deployment. Additionally, virtualised machines and thin client devices bring significant energy savings over the lifetime of the project, as well as CO2 reductions of around 44%.

Head of Business Development (EMEA) Tim Griggs says: “We see Southend as a prototype for regional airports. Ultra is now in a position to deliver a full suite of solutions as a service from the cloud in a cost-efficient manner”.