Executive Summary
On the wings of innovation, a leading US-based airline kick started its digital transformation in 2022 – aiming to embed the customer experience into every aspect of its IT modernization efforts, travel operations, and technology across the organization.
After careful consideration, it was determined that Amazon Web Services (AWS) offered the optimal runway for modernizing workloads, streamlining developer productivity, and accelerating deployment efficiencies.
Due to internal constraints of the client’s traditional, manually intensive approach to deployments, AWS Partners AHEAD and Harness teamed up to help the airline transition from tens to hundreds of applications on AWS. AHEAD was able to seamlessly blend Professional and Managed Services capabilities to create a custom solution to meet the client’s goals.
Through these efforts the client modernized 80% of its workloads on AWS, achieving a 70% reduction in resources required for deployments, a 75% increase in deployment rates, and a 40% increase in developer productivity via pipeline automation.
Modernizing Legacy Systems with Planned Cloud Migration Phases
In addition to modernizing and augmenting its fleet of commercial airplanes to enhance the customer experience, the client’s digital transformation efforts included global carbon emission reduction, spend optimization, and improving operational excellence.
The goal was to transform 80% of workloads into microservices on AWS – this would be the first, scalable step towards improving operations and customer experience. However, the airline’s technical debt and legacy infrastructure prevented the project’s liftoff. Rather than writing new code and focusing on future innovations, dozens upon dozens of developers spent much of their time fixing and redeploying code to maintain the airline’s existing developments and deployment environments.
Navigating the Skies of Digital Transformation
AWS Partners, AHEAD and Harness, played a crucial role in the client’s AWS transformation initiative.
With AHEAD’s IT consulting and technical implementation expertise, coupled with Harness’ end-to-end software delivery platform to automate manual processes, the client rapidly accelerated productivity and innovation, allowing engineers to focus on writing new code.
By adopting a collaborative approach with key stakeholders, AHEAD began by gathering and translating the airline’s business objectives into a comprehensive technology roadmap. A dedicated Client Success Manager (CSM) was then assigned to develop and maintain a prioritized backlog, ensuring that all efforts were aligned to the business outcomes throughout the managed services engagement. This governance strategy not only kept the technical teams aligned with the client’s business goals but also facilitated clear communication and accountability throughout the project.
By leveraging AWS services such as Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), and AWS Lambda, the client significantly reduced infrastructure costs and modernized application development. The enterprise-level implementation was quicker than usual due to the client’s integration with AWS.
Airline’s Deployment Efficiency Soars by 99%
AHEAD created several starter kits to lighten the cognitive load on development teams. These kits included all the necessary development files for Go, Python, and Java, along with pre-configured, automated CI/CD pipelines and tests.
This new process was streamlined so that any developer could simply log into a portal, enter 5-10 key pieces of metadata, and within minutes have everything they needed—a ready-to-go starter kit, code repositories, fully set-up pipelines, and automated tests that followed team coding standards. By automating this setup, developers were free to focus on actual coding instead of spending time manually configuring CI/CD pipelines and code repositories.
Since partnering with AHEAD and Harness for its AWS modernization efforts, and implementing repeatable CI/CD automation, the airline experienced a 40% increase in developer productivity, a 75% increase in deployment rates, and was able to reduce team overhead by 99% by only needing one developer to verify deployments.
Reaching New Heights by Simplifying Security and Reducing Pipelines by 98%
With security as a core focus of the project, AHEAD and Harness adopted a “Shift Left” approach in the software development process. This strategy integrated security into the development phase, allowing developers to write secure code from the outset while enabling security teams to focus on other critical workloads.
By implementing this approach, the airline successfully reduced the number of pipelines from thousands to fewer than two dozen. This streamlined and robust security system aligns with the airline’s digital transformation goals, which aim to control unit costs and enhance customer experiences.
Streamlining New Pipelines and Deployments for on AWS
AHEAD and Harness maintained constant communication with the airline to track transformation progress, refine approaches, and optimize migration costs. With over 200 applications in production and more than double that in the pipeline, the airline is soaring in the cloud.
The airline’s AWS transformation has resulted in significant improvements in deployment efficiency, developer productivity, and operational excellence. By partnering with AWS, AHEAD, and Harness, the airline has successfully navigated the skies of innovation and is well-positioned for future growth.