Data Warehousing in the Aviation Sector

Industry

The specific solution was implemented in the Aviation Industry, but the Orcha solution for Big Data and Information as a Service is equally applicable to any industry vertical.

The Problem

The customer found it difficult to get a complete picture of their operations as a result of their business activities through various operation channels in multiple countries.

The Solution

This problem was solved through the implementation of the Orcha platform in the public cloud to provide a cloud data integration platform using XaaS (Anything as a Service) stack principles. Data integration from operational applications was sourced, and ETL (Extraction-Transformation-Loading) processes were designed and deployed to centralize data using Amazon Redshift column-based storage.

The Functionality Implemented

• A customer portal using the Orcha Portal Services functions
• Reporting
• Revenue Assurance
• Data records
• Short-term storage of data
• Long-term storage of data
• Visualization of data

How It Works

Using a cloud-based deployment of the Orcha technology platform, the data warehousing and data processing of the information and data records provided comprehensive revenue assurance and visualization of the customer data. This can provide information which can be strategically used by management to make decisions and monitor the performance of the operations at a coarse-grained and a fine-grained level.

The Orcha Platform XaaS (Anything as a Service) Elements Delivered

• Database as a Service: Using a variety of pre-integrated database technologies, managing complex data integration streams and Master Data Management became possible for the customer
• Information as a Service: Data processing, including ETL and scheduled Orcha business processes to update fact tables and to build new dimensions, delivery of fully-fledged data warehouse capabilities for the customer without onerous implementation costs became a reality
• Process as a Service: A collection of business processes were configured using Orcha business process modeling to orchestrate various data integration activities
• Application as a Service: The Orcha solution delivers data integration capabilities for integration of application operational data using Orcha business processes exposed as services
• Integration as a Service: Orcha’s pre-integrated services to leverage AWS cloud services such as S3, IAM (Identity and Access Management) and Redshift were deployed to provide security, active document storage and data warehousing functions
• Security as a Service: AWS IAM was integrated using Orcha service enablement of IAM capabilities and this was integrated to ensure single sign-on and user-role-based access security for access to organizational business intelligence.
• Management and Governance as a Service: Orcha scheduled business processes were leveraged to ensure interval-based update of dimensions and fact table updates to optimize data availability and to enable business stakeholders to access critical business information with minimal delays.
• Infrastructure and Storage as a Service: Amazon EC2 hosting was used to host Orcha as virtual hosts for data integration business process management and orchestration.

Specific Features Which Can Be Implemented

• Comprehensive REST web services API used to retrieve information from the data warehouse
• Full API management
• Web portal
• Comprehensive reporting framework
• Statistical information processing
• Dashboarding and visualization enabled through:
  • Data collectors
  • Intermediate processing queues
  • Pipeline processors
  • Data processing and ETL
  • Real-time indexing and search
• Revenue accounting and reporting:
  • Report on financial aspects of the business by inspecting and loading reservation information from systems into various accounting platforms
• Additional functionality:
  • Data management
  • Data security
  • API access control
  • Portal access control
  • System access security

The Advantages

Some of the advantages associated with implementing this solution:

• Establishment of a comprehensive big data analytics platform in the public cloud
• No up-front hardware and data warehouse investment to vastly enhance data warehouse and analytics organizational capabilities
• Support for near real-time analytics that enables the business to make informed decisions in a timely manner
• Third parties, such as agencies and international partners, can onboard the platform functions using API integration without the risk of API errors
• Enhanced user experience of the airline business stakeholders
• APIs allow you to retrieve information for in-house web portals, custom reporting and dashboarding
• Customized reports providing enhanced operational visibility of the organization
• Seamless integration between airline’s systems allowing for flexibility and reduced vendor lock-in of systems