Abu Dhabi’s Etihad carrier signs $700M deal with IBM

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has signed a 10-year $700 million deal with IBM for a range of information technology services and infrastructure, the companies said on Tuesday.

The 10-year administration understanding that was marked a month ago and reported on Tuesday will give Etihad a scope of IBM administrations, including an arrangement for another cloud server farm in Abu Dhabi.

The deal will provide Etihad, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, with access to the latest cloud-based technologies and services, a joint statement said.

Etihad partners include Airberlin (Germany), Etihad Regional (Switzerland), Austria’s Niki, Air Serbia, Alitalia, Air Seychelles and India’s Jet Airways.

Etihad Airways’ current data center, IT infrastructure, applications and security operations will be migrated to the new data center in Abu Dhabi, and disaster recovery will be managed at an IBM Cloud data center in Europe. 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%. In the last quarter of 2014, IBM struck major deals with airline Lufthansa, Dutch bank ABN Amro and advertising giant WPP, for example.

100 Etihad Airways IT employees will transition to IBM.

Global competition among airlines is encouraging a wave of investment in IT solutions as airlines turn to technology in an attempt to reduce queue times, improve security and make life easier for passengers while reducing costs.

“These technologies will help the airline to improve efficiencies and achieve its ambitious growth plans as a globally integrated aviation group”.