A few years ago, a national airline’s IT team faced a nightmare scenario. During one of its busiest travel weeks, the airline experienced massive IT outages, resulting in the cancelation of more than half of its flights, stranding millions of disgruntled customers. Though the outage only lasted a few days, the reputational damage lingered, with news outlets criticizing the airline for its role in the disruption.
The ultimate cause of this disruption was legacy technology. Aside from outdated software systems, the airline’s primary data center was prone to outages, causing frustrating and costly IT issues – like the one that made it front-page news. The IT team needed to think fast to resume operations and minimize future damage. They decided to move data centers, and time was of the essence.
Amy Castro, Account Director at Zayo, explains, “The airline was losing a million dollars a minute. They came to Zayo to re-route everything and make the network 100% resilient.”
The airline contracted Zayo to provide the network infrastructure for this significant, timely, critical data center move. The airline needed to ensure its network was redundant and diverse to ensure such a catastrophe didn’t happen again.
What’s more, it wasn’t just one data center the airline needed to migrate from – the team needed to complete two data center migrations simultaneously while maintaining uptime. Luckily, Zayo was up to the task. Zayo’s role was to facilitate the two simultaneous physical data center moves without interrupting existing services.
The airline chose to work with Zayo for this important project due to our dense, diverse metro fiber map, specifically around its headquarters and data centers. Plus, the Zayo team was nimble, willing and able to act quickly to create the right network solution to successfully complete this ambitious project.
A Modern Network Solution, Custom-Built to Meet Unique Needs
To meet stringent diversity and uptime requirements following a strict timeline, Zayo formulated a private wavelength network (PWN) solution comprised of three diverse network rings.
“Private Wavelength Networks are very robust, have hardware, entry, power and rack, and fiber route diversity,” explains Enrico Garza, Sales Engineer at Zayo, “The customer had specific requirements for speed to delivery with this solution, and they knew Zayo could expedite what they needed and that we’re familiar with this type of network design.”
Most importantly, this solution was designed to ensure continuous uptime. Many airlines rely on this type of network design because it’s one of the most robust types of network designs and very customizable for diversity.
Zayo’s Solutions for the Airline:
- Data center to data center connectivity
- Network connections to major hubs
- CloudLink for connectivity to all cloud providers
- Internet access for pilot and crew airport lounges
- 3 Private Wavelength Network rings for multiple 10G Waves
In addition to the robust, diverse private network ring configuration to support the airline’s critical data center migration, the airline uses a few other Zayo solutions to meet its unique needs. Dedicated Internet circuits connect pilot and crew lounges at airports nationwide, ensuring crew members stay connected to the Internet using personal devices while on the ground.
The airline recently moved key workloads into the Cloud from on-premises locations to stay agile. Using Zayo’s CloudLink solution, the airline can seamlessly and cost-effectively access all of its cloud providers and UCaaS systems.
Zayo Supports What’s Next for the Airline
Because of Zayo’s partnership during this critical project, we’ve become a trusted advisor to the airline. “They didn’t just come to us and tell us what they needed,” Castro shares, “Our solution engineers worked with them to determine the right routes and come up with a unique solution.”
Using a true partnership approach, Zayo built trust with the airline’s team, “We’ve proven we’re more than just a commodity provider to them,” Castro adds, “This wasn’t a relationship built overnight, we had to prove ourselves.”
The airline had reached a critical point, and it was more important than ever to have a technology partner it could rely on.
“Ultimately, they turned to Zayo to help them stay out of the news,” Castro shares.
As the airline modernizes its tech stack – from fiber infrastructure and data centers to software solutions – it will continue to regain customer trust and reaffirm its position as a leading airline.
The team at Zayo hopes we’ve established a lasting relationship with the airline that can thrive and expand for years to come. We hope to support future needs with resilient, modern solutions like Managed Edge and Zayo Voice. Additionally, the current private wavelength network solution is designed with the capacity and availability to support the airline’s future network growth.
Why the Airline Chose Zayo
- Diverse, resilient fiber network
- Fast deployment to meet a strict deadline
- Partnership and expertise
- Solutions to support future growth
About Zayo
For more than 17 years, Zayo has empowered some of the world’s largest and most innovative companies to connect what’s next for their business. The Zayo group of companies connects 400 global markets with future-ready networks that span over 18 million fiber miles and 146,000 route miles. Zayo’s tailored connectivity solutions and managed services enable carriers, cloud providers, data centers, schools, and enterprises to deliver exceptional experiences from core to cloud to edge. Discover how Zayo connects what’s next at www.zayo.com and follow us on LinkedIn.