Microsoft is investing on its expertise to improve their tools, which will deliver up to date Mission Critical solutions for the enterprise market. Microsoft with its partners will invest over US$ 20 million in Asia Pacific over the next 24 months in resources, test labs, facilities and partner programs to redefine mission-critical computing and help enterprises more-successfully integrate solutions and applications in the 64-bit environment.
Mission critical computer systems have traditionally been associated with monolithic mainframe architectures running the most central core components of businesses. Typical examples would be core banking system, telco billing systems and manufacturing control systems.
Although there is no disputing that these types of architecture are mission critical, in that they need to be up and running for the business to operate, due to the evolving nature of technology and the evolution of business practices, it is time to take a fresh look at what mission critical truly is.
Microsoft is continually redefining mission critical systems such that these systems must be reliable, available, and, serviceable. Among the three concepts, availability of mission critical systems are the most overlooked and this is where Microsoft chose to focus.
A system that is highly available does not need a dedicated workforce of IT professionals with unique skills to maintain them and keep them running. The value of mission critical systems lie in how it is used and on who can access the data embedded within it. This is in close relation to Microsoft's people-ready business theme, which recognizes workers empowered with the right tools as the main resource that drives the success of a business.
"We are offering our enterprise customers solutions that not only address the older view of mission criticality in terms of uptime and performance, but also allow users to easily and effective use the systems, access the data and simply the security, management and development environments by having a single software platform across the right hardware architecture for the job at hand," said Chris Sharp, General Manager for Server and Tools, Microsoft Asia Pacific.
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One such mission critical system is the integrated Airline Reservation and Ticketing (stag+ARTS) system of South East Asian Airlines (SEAIR), which went live this year with several new services, including the on-line e-ticketing and electronic check-in. The system is a cost-effective, advanced software solution developed in partnership with stag Philippines, Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner offering IT-based solutions utilizing the power of the Microsoft platform.
"stag's goal is simple and that is to deliver strategic, technology-based business solutions that provide tangible and measurable value and sustainable competitive value to our clients using the .Net framework," said Chris Stolk, President, stag Philippines.
A system built on the .Net frame fused with SEAIR's extensive knowledge of the airline industry, stag+ARTS enables small and medium-sized airline carriers here and abroad to computerize and centralize their reservation, ticketing, and check-in procedures, thus allowing a more streamlined and automated flight booking and reservation process. Airlines only need access to the Internet and a Microsoft-based PC to use it from anywhere in the world.
The revolutionary system now allows the customer to view SEAIR flight schedules, ticket prices and seat availability as well as a hassle-free purchase of tickets in the comfort of one's home or office. SEAIR expects to generate as much as 30% growth of their business from the Internet channel alone with the new functionality of the system.
"Our partnership with stag Philippines has lead to the development of a cost-effective, tailor-made software solution that will help strengthen SEAIR's position in the travel industry and will provide our passengers with an easier, worry-free way of managing their travel schedules," enthused Patrick Tan, Vice President for Commercial Affairs and director for Corporate Planning and Development, South East Asian Airlines.
In the course of the following years, Microsoft will reach out to key vertical sectors in the region including healthcare, public sector, media, telecom, mid-market manufacturers, retail and energy & oil to help them reshape mission critical computing through their improved platform capability.
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