ASL Aviation Holdings DAC: Strategically consolidating its systems using Google Cloud
About ASL Aviation Holdings DAC
ASL Aviation Holdings DAC is a global aviation services group based in Swords, Ireland, that comprises freight, passenger transport, and leasing businesses. The group employs around 3,000 people and generates revenue in the region of €1 billion.
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Contact usASL Aviation Holdings DAC consolidated the IT systems spread across seven sites into a single site using Google Cloud in order to gain greater control over its information system and reduce costs. Thanks to Google Cloud's commitment and support, the company was able to migrate over 90% of its existing systems in around six months.
Google Cloud results
- A more resilient, reliable information system
- Enhanced system security
- Significant cost reduction
- A more agile, highly scalable, and upgradeable infrastructure
Significantly reduced complexity and costs in terms of IT
ASL Aviation Holdings DAC is a global aviation services group based in Swords, Ireland, that comprises several businesses, including six airlines, maintenance facilities, and a number of leasing entities. It's an innovative group offering flexible, customized services to its customers. It began by operating cargo aircraft for customers, such as FedEx, DHL, and UPS. Over the years, the group acquired and/or merged with several other airlines and diversified its business by offering passenger transport, maintenance, and aircraft leasing services. This effective external growth strategy not only enabled the company to rapidly gain market share, but also to establish its services worldwide. In 2021, its revenue exceeded €1 billion euros, and its fleet of 160 aircraft carried almost 7 million passengers and over 900,000 metric tons of freight in 2022.
Consolidating to reduce complexity and costs
But this all-out external growth strategy also made its information system considerably more complex. While the group is only just celebrating 25 years in the game, some of its constituent companies were founded more than 40 or 50 years ago. In terms of IT, this means the group has continuously been integrating and creating communication links between assorted information systems, some of which are based on technologies that are clearly outdated, for the past 20 years. At the same time, over the years, the group accumulated a number of IT sites. "When I joined the group in 2020, ASL Aviation Holdings DAC had no fewer than seven IT sites in Europe," explains Ian Brennan, Group CIO. "Managing so many different systems and locations was inevitably extremely complex, not to mention the fact that this fragmented IT system wasn't conducive to pooling or reliability. In other words, it cost us a lot of money and made us take risks. Faced with this situation, there was only one solution—consolidating to reduce the complexity and, subsequently, the costs."
"At the end of 2019, ASL Aviation Holdings DAC had no fewer than seven IT sites. Managing so many different systems and sites was inevitably extremely complex, not to mention the fact that this fragmented IT system wasn't conducive to pooling or reliability. In other words, it cost us a lot of money and made us take risks. Faced with this situation, there was only one solution—consolidating to reduce the complexity and, subsequently, the costs."
—Ian Brennan, CIO of ASL Aviation Holdings DACInitially, ASL Aviation Holdings DAC envisaged a somewhat "traditional" approach, aiming to reduce its existing seven sites down to just two hosted in colocated data centers, with one serving as its DR (disaster recovery site). But on reflection, Ian Brennan took the logic of rationalization one step further and envisaged the outright migration of all the information systems to the cloud: "Why reduce the consolidation to two sites when I could reduce it down to just one? With major cloud service providers, disaster recovery is their responsibility. So, given the critical nature of what we were planning to do—which was to entrust the running of an entire information system that ensures the reliability of passenger and cargo flights to an external service provider—we carried out very thorough market research, competitive tenders and finally chose Google Cloud."
Google Cloud for outstanding commitment
At the time, ASL Aviation Holdings DAC was already using the cloud for certain parts of its information systems. "More accurately, we were using all the major cloud providers on the market," specifies Ian Brennan. "In terms of consolidation, we decided to reduce our use of the cloud to a single service provider. Of course, the technological offering was a main factor in our choice, but you don't decide to entrust your information system to a third party without also building a trusting relationship. We were faced with major challenges with this migration, so we needed a partner who would listen, support us, and really invest in the success of our project. And it's precisely on these points that Google Cloud truly stood out from the rest."
"We were faced with major challenges with this migration, so we needed a partner who would listen, support us, and really invest in the success of our project. And it's precisely on these points that Google Cloud truly stood out from the rest."
—Ian Brennan, CIO of ASL Aviation Holdings DACFor the CIO of ASL Aviation Holdings DAC, there was no second-guessing the reliability, security, and robustness of the services offered by Google Cloud: "On the basis Google Cloud is capable of running services such as the world's most widely used search engine, Maps, and Gmail, I had no doubts about its ability to guarantee the smooth running of the information system for an airline company our size. The same could be said of some of its competitors, but none of them had the same kind of commitment Google Cloud had alongside us on a project as vast as it is complex, and for us, absolutely mission critical. From the outset, Google Cloud's teams were invested in the design of the target architecture, and we were supported by highly specialized experts in the migration process and in developing the skills of our in-house teams."
Google Cloud for innovative and competitive services
ASL Aviation information systems don't just support the operation of their fleet of aircraft. The group mainly uses off the shelf applications where the underlying technology wasn't being changed by the consolidation project. As a first step, ASL simply wanted to reduce the number of servers by pooling and sharing the hosting of its VMs, which were scattered across its various sites.
More generally, the first stage of the project has been more of a "lift & shift" than a modernization of the existing systems, with the group capitalizing on services, such as Google Cloud Bare Metal for Oracle Workloads to retain its existing databases. However, when the opportunities arise, the group doesn't think twice about upgrading the existing systems. For example, it abandoned its former VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) solution in favor of Citrix's Google Cloud-based service.
"We can't say we're actually modernizing our existing applications," explains Ian Brennan. "The main aim of this consolidation is to increase reliability and reduce costs, mainly achieved through a reduced number of sites and servers, as well as the ever-relevant tips offered by Google Cloud's experts. Modernization will be the second stage."
More relaxed IT teams, freed from infrastructure contingencies
"Today, we no longer have to worry about hardware—that's Google Cloud's problem. Similarly, we no longer manage the network or the hypervisor. All these elements are now Google Cloud's responsibility. And since we have no doubts about the reliability of the services, because we've been relieved of a number of tasks that have no added value for our business. Now we are focused on application reliability, which really supports our users and customers."
—Ian Brennan, CIO of ASL Aviation Holdings DACThe project started at the end of 2022 and is still underway, but almost 90% of the existing system has already been migrated. At this stage, it's still too early for the CIO of ASL Aviation Holdings DAC to give an exact figure for the cost reductions brought about by this cloud consolidation. However, he is delighted with this bold choice, which also benefits his teams, assured that the company has increased its reliability, security, and scalability, while reducing costs: "Today, we no longer have to worry about hardware—that's Google Cloud's problem. Similarly, we no longer manage the network or the hypervisor. All these elements are now Google Cloud's responsibility. And since we have no doubts about the reliability of the services, because we've been relieved of a number of tasks that have no added value for our business. Now we are focused on application reliability, which really supports our users and customers."
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About ASL Aviation Holdings DAC
ASL Aviation Holdings DAC is a global aviation services group based in Swords, Ireland, that comprises freight, passenger transport, and leasing businesses. The group employs around 3,000 people and generates revenue in the region of €1 billion.