Delta Taps IBM to Move More Applications to the Cloud
February 18 2021 - 7:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Jared Council
Delta Air Lines Inc. on Thursday said it signed a multiyear
contract with International Business Machines Corp. to help the
carrier move most of its data and applications to the cloud.
The companies declined to disclose the value of the contract,
which runs through at least 2024. The agreement calls for IBM to
help the airline migrate applications to -- or, in some cases, help
rebuild applications for -- cloud-based servers run by tech
providers of Delta's choosing.
The deal also calls for IBM to train more than 1,000 Delta IT
workers in how to operate in cloud environments, including helping
them develop skills related to application development, data
management and security.
The migration will involve hundreds of software applications,
including Delta's flagship "Fly Delta" mobile application, its
internal contact center software, baggage tracking system and more.
It doesn't include Delta's enterprise resource planning, or ERP,
software which at least initially will remain based on servers
owned and operated by Delta.
The deal will accelerate a cloud-migration plan Delta started in
2018 that was originally expected to take about 10 years, Delta's
Chief Information Officer Rahul Samant said. He said Delta's
objective now is to complete that effort, which entails having at
least 90% of its applications and databases in cloud environments,
by 2024.
"We were going to do it on a very opportunistic basis, versus
now, this is like a real program," Mr. Samant said. "We've got a
mission, we've got a partner, we've got a timeline," he added.
Running data and applications in cloud environments -- as
opposed to on-premises servers -- will help Delta reduce
tech-related outages, deploy new applications or features quickly
and access artificial intelligence tools only available in the
cloud, among other benefits, Mr. Samant said.
IBM has been trying to boost its growth partly through a greater
focus on hybrid cloud computing. In that vision, thousands of
companies would migrate to the cloud in the coming years, while
keeping some equipment in-house. These companies also are expected
to use multiple cloud providers and data centers, creating
opportunities for IBM to manage the complexities of that setup.
"We are certainly working considerably across this industry,"
said Mark Foster, senior vice president of services at IBM, noting
cloud-related deals with companies including American Airlines Inc.
Referring to the Delta deal he said, "what we're doing here around
the full application modernization, this is one of the more
comprehensive."
Chirag Dekate, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said Delta is among a
range of companies that are moving to the cloud to give IT teams a
unified platform to develop, deploy and maintain applications.
"Organizations that do engage in these journeys will certainly
be positioned to capitalize on the growth momentum that companies
will experience at the end of Covid," he said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 18, 2021 08:14 ET (13:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
International Business M... (NYSE:IBM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
International Business M... (NYSE:IBM)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024