Even as the cloud journey has reached cruising altitudes, Cathay Pacific Group's IT department is not slowing down. Conversely, listed operators Cathay Pacific Airlines and HK Express are moving from a migration model to an optimised model in order to reap the benefits of a comprehensive cloud transformation.
Rajeev Nair, General Manager of IT Infrastructure and Security at Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific, a major airline and cargo airline, said: "Cloud optimisation is a new initiative in 2024 that is mainly about optimising cloud workloads, rewriting some applications, and how we can reduce CO2 emissions more effectively with the advent of ESG. ”
Cathay Pacific launched its cloud journey four years ago and has accelerated its move to the cloud for nearly three years. To date, Cathay Pacific has migrated about 98 per cent of its 400 applications to the AWS cloud, but has also migrated some workloads to Azure, and plans to further "rebalance" cloud providers to ensure Cathay Pacific is not locked into any vendor, Nair said.
Like many businesses, Cathay Pacific relied heavily on a lift-and-shift approach in the initial stages, hoping to benefit from the immediate efficiency and scalability of the cloud. But Nair said Cathay Pacific will focus on enhancing the security and performance of these workloads on the cloud in the next cloud optimisation phase. Nair was hired by Cathay Pacific in 2011 as an Application Services Manager and was promoted to his current role 10 years later.
Nair said data management is another key priority for Cathay Pacific this year, as the company aims to consolidate data sources and data repositories across multiple data warehouses for better analysis across all applications.
The optimization strategy will also include making modifications to the company's SaaS-based applications, such as Salesforce CRM, ServiceNow, and SAP, to better align them with the business and maximize the company's return on investment in this model.
As part of their cloud optimization strategy, NAI says they also place special emphasis on enhancements to automation and self-service. Many of Cathay Pacific's internal business processes are automated using Uipath, and NAIR aims to improve these processes to better support employee self-service to fulfill requests and resolve incidents.
On the business side, he said, Cathay Pacific uses Airbus aircraft for passenger flights and Boeing aircraft for its cargo fleet, with the goal of expanding routes to China and increasing aircraft capacity to improve profitability while improving fuel efficiency.
Ensure network security
According to Nair, one of the key aspects of Cathay Pacific's cloud optimisation plan is the adoption of Aryaka's Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) converged networking, security and observability platform across the global network. He added that this platform will replace the standard MPLS network.
Nair said Cathay Pacific's move to modernized SASE will enable reliable internet bandwidth, enhance interoperability between network elements and enable the company to better manage and secure hundreds of workloads on AWS and Azure.
Nair joined Cathay Pacific 13 years ago and was previously employed by Emirates. He said his extensive experience in applications has given him a unique perspective on the business issues of relying on old, SITA-based networks in cloud environments.
Often the problem with infrastructure is that people don't really understand the customer's pain points," he said.
According to some analysts, the ability to support digital business transformation efforts with a zero-trust security posture while keeping complexity under control is an important driver for SASE adoption.
"Digital business is driving the need for new digital capabilities, such as cloud and edge computing and the way to work from anywhere, which in turn has reversed the need for access, from forcing end users to connect to managed networks for security to secure access wherever they are," said John Watts, an analyst at Gartner. At the same time, enterprises are increasingly pursuing a zero-trust strategy, and providing a zero-trust security posture is an integral part of the SASE architecture and an integral part of emerging SASE products. ”
According to IDC, SASE is the combination of network-as-a-service and security-as-a-service into a unified cloud-native architecture, with a shift in focus from a traffic-centric to an identity-based approach.
In addition to Aryaka, vendors such as Cato Networks, Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, and Zscaler also offer SASE solutions worldwide.
Aryaka's SASE will replace a number of legacy networking technologies currently used by Cathay Pacific, including the Cisco Viptela SD-WAN service, Symantec Web Security Service (WSS)** for security controls, a Meraki corporate WiFi service for employees, a VPN for remote work, and the ability to connect the CX Business Partner Network to business partners such as Amadeus, Champ Cargo Systems and HAECO Group via the SITA network.
According to a report released by IDC just in December, as the threat landscape continues to expand, so does the need for network infrastructure, including the "convergence" of connectivity, network functions and security.
Sakshi Grover, research analyst at IDC India, said in the report: "The cybersecurity threat landscape in the Asia-Pacific region is gradually deteriorating. To address these challenges, enterprises are integrating key security technologies under the SASE SSE framework. ”
Optimize agility
Nair noted that security is a key issue for Cathay Pacific, but cybersecurity can be an obstacle to agility if the design is not effective enough. Cloud optimization also requires fine-tuning the capacity allocated to each workload. He said the goal of reducing excess** would not only reduce costs, but also help Cathay Pacific meet its sustainability goals and become "greener".
Every month we pick a specific day to announce the roster to the cabin crew and flight crew, during which capacity issues arise and we have teams working behind the scenes to solve the problem, and the cloud is able to help us become more scalable and agile. ”
Cathay Pacific was also one of the early innovators in leveraging blockchain digital ledger technology. In 2019, Cathay Pacific Cargo applied blockchain technology to its cargo terminal at Hong Kong International Airport, becoming the first airline to use blockchain to manage the storage of ULD inventory, according to Nair.
"The second phase includes freight in Hong Kong**, where drivers used to write down the ULD number and manually exchange documents at the terminal when they delivered or collected pre-packed goods or empty ULDs," he said. Under the new system, they can enter the ULD number into a dedicated smartphone app, which will record the transfer of custody in the blockchain, so both parties (the merchant and the airline) know who the ULD custody is. ”
Nair said the blockchain solution could ensure they track ULD ownership at every stage of delivery to help Cathay Pacific distribute ownership and inventory in real-time across 200 ports.
Generative AI is coming
Aircraft manufacturers use advanced automation technology to take full control of the aircraft in flight, which is very helpful in a time when airlines are struggling to recruit pilots. But behind the scenes, another type of "co-pilot" is emerging, a technology that better assists business users in their jobs, and Cathay Pacific Group is one of many companies exploring the use of these emerging generative AI assistants.
According to Nair, Microsoft recently released Copilot, a software that automates many tasks and increases employee productivity, and Cathay Pacific has also recently used machine learning models and generative AI "more frequently" as an early adopter.
He said Cathay Pacific was still in the early stages of development and testing, and it was unclear how quickly it would bring large-scale changes to the business. He noted that there is no doubt that in less than a decade, digital transformation has had a significant impact on businesses and consumer culture, and this process is accelerating.
According to Nair, what was once seen as a business support function is now the biggest game-changer for business. "Technology is becoming a pillar of the organization, and if you don't embrace it, you lose. Even though AI is still in its early stages, you have to understand it and think about all the possibilities. ”