Air transport IT specialist, SITA, has announced a programme to build a community cloud dedicated to the air transport industry that will improve efficiencies and reduce costs. The ATI Cloud programme builds on SITA's unique community role in the industry and meets a strong demand from its ATI customers.

SITA's investment in shared cloud infrastructure is already well underway and the ATI Cloud applications and services will go live from June. These include infrastructure, platform, desktop and software-as-a-service offerings, which will enable true end-to-end business and IT solutions on demand for the unique needs of air transport.

Francesco Violante, SITA CEO, said: "SITA has a successful 60-year track record of working solely for the air transport community, taking a long-term view and investing for the industry's future. Our global communications backbone and industry knowledge provides the foundation for our investment in the ATI Cloud."

The air transport industry is truly unique and has very special needs. It integrates many different players such as airlines, airports, manufacturers and GDSs that share numerous business applications and must co-operate across the air transport eco-system. It operates on a complex set of national, regional and global regulations and standards, requiring a consistent approach across stakeholders and across IT services.

Violante added: "The best way to really serve the industry's needs is to build an integrated cloud combining network and IT solely dedicated, and specifically tailored, to the air transport industry. SITA has a community ethos of providing solutions to the air transport industry and providing the ATI cloud is the logical next step for SITA."

"The ATI Cloud is firstly about having a secure and reliable global network, and SITA already has that; the ATI Cloud is about managing shared IT infrastructure such as that at airports, in which SITA is a leader; and it is about optimising the operation and distribution of applications from data centres to end users. As the leading provider of air transport IT solutions, SITA has now committed to the delivery of the ATI Cloud."

The ATI Cloud is based on six large regional virtual data centres across five continents; together with virtual data centres based at large airports. Services will be delivered through leading-edge self-service and automation portal technology, providing IT managers with on-demand provisioning, control, visibility and reporting. End-users will be no more than 100 milliseconds away from one of the data centres.