Challenges and Battle Scars from OpenStack Deployments
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
- Asia
Country
- United States
- Australia
Product
- OpenStack
- Cloud Foundry
- Red Hat
Tech Stack
- OpenStack
- Cloud Foundry
- Kubernetes
- Docker
- Ansible
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Digital Expertise
- Productivity Improvements
- Customer Satisfaction
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Transportation
- Software
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Process Manufacturing
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
About The Customer
American Airlines is a major airline in the United States, known for its extensive network of domestic and international flights. As a large corporate entity, it has been virtualizing its operations for over 11 years. The company embarked on a journey to create a hybrid solution combining an internal data center with a public cloud, aiming to increase open-source usage across the enterprise. American Airlines focuses on business agility, portability, and fostering a DevOps culture. The airline's IT team works closely with network teams to integrate OpenStack with existing systems, ensuring seamless operations across various environments.
The Challenge
Deploying OpenStack in a large enterprise like American Airlines presents several challenges. The first challenge is choosing between a distribution or upstream OpenStack, ensuring the infrastructure needs align with the right distribution. Dealing with older hardware and updating drivers can lead to months of delays. Troubleshooting OpenStack requires unique knowledge of its services and dependencies, and finding skilled personnel is difficult. Convincing application teams to adopt OpenStack and newer deployment methods like Ansible and containers is another hurdle. Upgrades, though less intrusive now, still pose unique challenges.
The Solution
To address these challenges, American Airlines partnered with DXC, a managed services provider, to implement OpenStack. DXC provided initial consultation on design, choosing the right distribution and architecture, and setting up networking and storage. They offered ongoing services, including incident management and capacity management, ensuring 24/7 operations with skilled OpenStack personnel. The managed services provider handled up to the OpenStack layer, while American Airlines managed the applications and business outcomes. The partnership enabled the successful deployment of critical applications like the Bag Tracker app, which tracks passenger bags and aircraft equipment.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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