Millions of passengers pass through the world’s airports every day, and the demands for digital services and a personalised travel experience are ever-increasing. This is matched by the pressure for IT departments to adapt, expand and implement these new technologies and their infrastructure, quickly and robustly.
Using our knowledge and expertise, we have developed the Airport IT HealthCheck; to support airports and their IT departments to understand the status of their systems and to ensure they are prepared for the future.
At NACO, we understand that although the average lifecycle of active equipment in our airports varies between four to six years, the lifecycle of cabling and other fundamental infrastructure can last up to 20 years. Airport expansions over time may also have led to patchworks of ad-hoc network infrastructure additions that fail to consider overall IT requirements for long-term growth. Pre COVID-19, the growth in passenger numbers saw IT systems pushed to capacity. As airports recover from the crisis, the introduction of new processes for passenger health screening and touch-free facilities mean that capacity demand may shift and increased flexibility may be required from IT systems.
Robust airport IT master planning is of course important to try to predict and address this ever changing environment. And, it all starts with having a clear overview of the status of an airport’s IT infrastructure.
The benefits range from better and more informed investment planning, to service management improvements including:
Benchmarking against other airports to create a business case for IT investment
Assisting in planning and budgeting for maintenance and investments in IT
Preparation for scheduled airport renovations
Accurate overview of IT systems allowing for quick assessments to gauge capacity for new services and technologies
Improved service management to better assessment of potential weak points and to better address outages
Getting insights on the status of airport IT systems while ensuring they are fit for the future can seem like a complex process, particularly when technological developments and demands continue to emerge. But to be able to assess what is needed in the future, it is just as important to review the current situation.
That’s why we have developed the Airport IT HealthCheck. The Airport IT HealthCheck is a trusted and proven process based on our years’ of experience in reviewing, advising on and improving airport IT systems for airports around the world.
The Airport IT HealthCheck provides the quick, impartial overview needed to set the foundations of connecting, building and improving the IT infrastructure. This incorporates understanding of IT systems – their performance, ability to expand, and end-of-life – as well the underlying IT infrastructure supporting these systems.
Our Airport IT HealthCheck follows a four-step process:
