Case study

14

Pride of the Emirates

Dubai-based Emirates Airline has seen an unparalleled rate of expansion over the past 25 years. As it enters 2011, the regions largest airline is opening a brand new data centre that will give it enough IT capacity for the next decade.

he story of Emirates Airline is an interesting one. Founded in the mideighties following Gulf Airs decision to cut the number of ights operating out of Dubai, Emirates has a success story that is only matched by the likes of Irish low-cost carrier Ryanairs recent rise to dominance. Founded with the backing of Dubais ruling family, the company was given a strict set of conditions. It would receive $10m in start-up

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capital, but it would have to be self-sucient. Fail to launch the airline with that initial capital, and the company would fold. Emirates Airlines became protable in just nine months. By the 1990s, the airline had become one of the fastest growing carriers globally. Today, the business has around 150 planes in operation, ranging from the 278 passenger A330-200 through to the worlds largest plane, the 517 passenger A380-800, and is the Middle Easts

biggest airline by revenue and passenger numbers. However, the culture of innovation and smart use of resources isnt restricted to the companys eet side operations. The companys IT division also has a strong reputation in the Middle Easts enterprise market: and for good reason. The companys latest project a brand new two-oor, 1,000 sq m data centre is just the latest in a long line of ventures that have

helped the company to where it is today. The data centre, which is tier-IV rated, according to Emirates data centre facilities manager Sean Francis, is due to go online in February 2011. The nal commissioning is underway as we speak, reveals Francis. This new data centre will provide Emirates Group with enough capacity until 2020. The company already has two existing data centres based in Dubai: its MITEC facility which was

its rst data centre, and its Emirates Group Technology Centre, which also houses the headquarters of Emirates technology division Mercator. However, when it came to expanding its data capacity, it didnt automatically choose to invest in the current data centre. When it became clear we were getting close to our capacity threshold, we began considering the options we had. One was to look at outsourcing it to a cloud services provider. However, while that was an attractive option from a cost perspective, the lack of control was a concern, reveals Francis. One of the core reasons we believe we have been so successful when it comes to our IT strategy has been our ability to control the quality of hardware used, the security of the infrastructure, and the versatility of the solution. Handling the solution in-house posed a number of challenges, reveals Francis. While the company had faced many of the same issues when constructing the its rst two data centres, its latest project was the rst time the company had built one to be contained in its own structure, with no other functions planned inside. Our rst data centre was very much an ad-hoc aair. We added capacity as we went along until we didnt have any more space. Thats why the generator is outside of the building, he says laughing. There wasnt any more room inside. In terms of the new data centre, it will oer 500m2 of usable raised oor space on each of its two oors, reveals Francis. In terms of power supply, each oor will be supplied via 1200kVA N+1 UPS power in a modular format, with each backed up by N+1 1500kVA generators on each. According to Francis, this will provide more than enough power to manage the data centres

Emirates considered outsourcing hosting to a cloud provider, but loss of control put it off the idea.

growth over the next 10 years. At the moment, were only planning on bringing a small part of the data centre online. Part of the reason for this is that it will enable us to test many of the new concepts,

we want to achieve related to the management of the new centres capacity. These include the control of costs, empowerment of the IT solutions, reduction of operating costs, ecient utilisation of

eciency. The data centre has been designed from the ground up to ensure that cooling occurs naturally as much as possible. If you look at the basic design of the rack spaces, they are

This new data centre will provide Emirates Group with enough server capacity until 2020.
such as raised oors and ceilings, as well as dual-route cooling and exhaust heat management, we have implemented to ensure they work as expected, he explains. We have a number of goals resources and accurate measuring of all of these combined. In terms of managing the environment, we have a number of strategies to minimise energy consumption, while maximising intended to make use of natural convection currents as much as possible to reduce the needs of articial cooling. It is small things like this that have enabled Emirates to achieve what it set out to do in the rst place, Francis claims. While its current size may seem unnecessary for a single company that doesnt predominantly deal in IT, the airlines expansion plans will mean it needs to dramatically ramp up supply, especially at peak times, such as Ramadan, Eid, Christmas, Dewali and during the summer. If it is successful, then Emirates will once again have demonstrated that its culture of innovation works. Ben Furfie February 2011 Vol.17 No.2 15

About Emirates

Founded: 1985 Revenue H1 2010: US $7.2 billion Net prot H1 2010: US $925 million Passengers: 25.9 million carried in calendar year 2009. Sponsorship: Paid US $170 million for Arsenal stadium naming rights. Fleet: Is the worlds biggest customer of the A380, with a total of 90 ordered. Rankings (2009): Sixth largest airline based on passenger numbers; largest based on passenger kilometres own; fth largest based on scheduled freight tonne kilometres (IATA gures).