IBM has signed a $700m deal with Etihad Airways to provide IT services and infrastructure over the next 10 years.
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Aside from the data centre, the two companies will also form a joint technology and innovation council, set in Abu Dhabi, and tasked with the development of more personalised travel solutions. The agreement will assist the UAE airline transfer its current infrastructure over to a cloud based platform in order to better serve its clients. Its accomplice carriers incorporate Alitalia, airberlin, Jet Airways, Air Serbia and Air Seychelles.
Under the agreement, IBM will be tasked to move the airline’s infrastructure to the cloud, first by building a data centre in Abu Dhabi.
Etihad said the centre – which IBM will develop and operate – would be one of the most sophisticated technology facilities in the Middle East.
Etihad conveyed 14.8 million travelers in 2014 and serves 113 traveler and payload destinations around the world. Big Blue said in December that 2014 was a breakthrough business for the company’s cloud unit and it would carry that momentum to expand worldwide operations by 25%.
IBM struck major agreements with Lufthansa, ABN Amro and advertising giant WPP in the last quarter of 2014.
Robert Webb, Etihad Airways’ Chief Information and Technology Officer, said: “We trust that this kind of assistance will consequently improve our visitor life experience and improve our highly competitive put further…”
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As part of the agreement, around 100 Etihad Airways information technology employees will transition to IBM. The agreement will also give Etihad Airways and its equity partners access to IBM’s Watson cognitive technology.
