Danish Rail Net keeps commuters informed via cloud computing
20 December 2010
In this case study, you can read about how a Danish transport company has achieved 76% cost savings on IT investments and can now provide a much more reliable information service to its customers, thanks to cloud computing.
As the supplier of a vital traffic information system in Denmark, Rail Net delivers information drawn from large amount of data to Danish commuters, as well as to radio and television stations. Rail Net’s central requirements for the system were: stability, operational reliability and the ability to handle peak load situations. Moreover, the response time had to be reduced so users could find information faster.
Rail Net Denmark have decided to develop a cloud based information system built on the Windows Azure platform, which in real time shows how trains are running. The information that was available on the homepage of Rail Net Denmark is now located in the cloud, meaning that it is displayed more quickly. In addition, the cloud platform is easy to scale and enables more computing power behind the website. This is of great importance in situations where there is a sharp increase in traffic or a disruption, such as severe winter weather. Where the website previously risked being blocked under such circumstances, the new cloud based system ensures that the system runs smoothly and commuters can stay informed.
Moving the Rail Net traffic information system onto the Azure platform resulted in two overall benefits: reduced costs and the implementation of a stable system that can handle traffic peaks.
The total costs for Rail Net Denmark for improving its business operations and IT costs for the next three years would have been €47,000 annually, but by using cloud computing technology the total costs amount to approximately €15,000. Placing the system in the cloud provides 76% cost savings on hardware and software investments, while minimising the need for support and maintenance.
"In our view, it is running very well. It responds exactly to the challenges we have struggled with for several years, in spite of the fact that the traffic is under much pressure. I am a happy man at this point!", says Kenneth Lau Rentius, CIO Rail Net Denmark.
Based on test runs, he believes that Rail Net DenmarK now has the capacity to cope if the whole of Denmark's population checks the traffic information during a single week.
Kenneth sees that the new solution can be expanded, to include additional components like the tool “Landets Puls” (The Country Pulse) which is a graphical tool that gives an overview of how passenger trains throughout the country and in the South of Sweden is running in real time.
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