British Airways (BA) is turning to service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Progress Software to connect over 600 different electronic systems and processes involved in getting BA passengers in the air.
BA has more than 250 key applications distributed over 300 locations around the globe, which explains why they chose Progress. From an integration perspective, Progress® Sonic ESB® excels in those scenarios that require the integration and management of hundreds or even thousands of systems. One Progress customer was able to deploy its integration backbone out to 25 locations a day (and can update them in a fraction of that time).
One can only guess how many of those 250 systems are touched when you travel BA. Everything from choosing your seat assignment to charging your credit card (once only please), to selecting a vegan meal is managed via systems. And let's hope those systems succeed in keeping track of your luggage.
The real-time data synchronization of SI allows BA to significantly improves information quality while reducing costs associated with data replication. And Progress® Actional® SOA Management provides BA with the visibility they need to make sure your reservation gets booked and you make it to your destination in a timely manner. Weather permitting, of course. ;)
Thanks to SOA, BA is able to extend the features of its e-commerce site right through to its airports, allowing greater self-service functionality and 'plug and play' capability to over 25,000 users.
"Moving this to a highly automated environment is a challenge, but SOA quickly proved itself to be the right approach to achieving our goal of a fully agile environment."
So the next time you take your family to London (or Disney - that's my family's destination of choice at the moment), think about how many transactions went right along the way, automatically.
I love when technology makes a tangible difference. Pretty cool stuff.