APA Issue 3, 2021
TAKING TO THE CLOUD A new era of connectivity, innovation and opportunity has begun for Cambodia Airports, writes Laurence Erbs, general manager for Siem Reap International Airport.
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ecently, I joined Cambodia Airports and found that, like many others, we were beginning the process of further modernising by moving to the cloud. The decision to continue this forwardlooking project even after the COVID-19 pandemic hit was obvious, and it quickly became apparent why the decision was made. At the outset of the project, the objective was clear – replacing end-of-life IT infrastructure with a new generation of cloud computing services that would help our airports scale up to meet increasing demand. Thanks to their locations, our three airports in Cambodia serve a vast array of international travellers. Siem Reap, for example, is home to the Angkor Archaeological Park, the largest religious structure in the world, which attracted over two and a half million visitors in 2019. In peak season, the flow of additional passengers can place a strain on services. Yet, like many airports, we suddenly faced a period of reduced traffic. If we’d have been upgrading to capitalintensive on-site servers and software, we may have delayed or cancelled the project. It would have been
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difficult to justify upfront investment as we approached a period of disruption. But with the cloud, we realised the cost model was variable – we pay for IT services based on the amount of business we handle. Our service teams also rose to the challenge and Amadeus was able to organise efficient training for staff and airlines. Everything was delivered online, directed by teams based across the world, and we found that the quality of training meant that learnings can be passed onto new staff effectively. Aside from the variable cost and ease of training, it quickly became apparent that the new approach to IT could help us respond to the impact of the pandemic. The number and type of airlines offering services from the three international hubs we operate in Cambodia has fluctuated during the pandemic. Some have scaled back operations and others have chosen to begin new services, and in both cases the cloud enabled the changes immediately. With a single connection to Amadeus, we’ve been able to access the vast majority of the world’s airlines without
