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November 08, 2022

Amadeus embarks on a new wave of innovation with data mesh on Azure

Amadeus creates technology solutions that transform the way people travel. With more than 10 petabytes of data in its estate, the company has one of the largest data platforms in Europe. The organization wanted to unleash the true potential of its data while maintaining the highest possible security standards. Amadeus chose Microsoft to help it implement a data mesh architecture on Microsoft Azure. Supported by a clear data strategy and next-generation operating model, the solution will help Amadeus spur the development of innovative new personalized and on-demand travel experiences.

Amadeus

“What Amadeus and Microsoft are creating with this data mesh is really the foundation for a new wave of innovation. By the beginning of 2023, we expect the data mesh to be operating at a global scale, servicing the data needs of our customers across the travel industry with strong governance and strict access control measures.”

Joel Singer, Head of Data Engineering, Amadeus

Spanish information technology provider Amadeus is behind many of the innovations that power products and services used within the global travel and tourism industry. With more than 16,000 employees worldwide, nearly half of the company’s workforce is dedicated to research and development, with its solutions serving customers across all segments of the travel industry, including airlines, travel agencies, hotels, airports, cruise lines, car companies, and rail. Over 1 billion travel transactions are processed through Amadeus platforms each day. 

Though the lines of business of travel-related companies are complementary, they have few opportunities to gain data insights from each another about the travelers they share. “When a person travels, they go through several channels, generating data each time,” says Joel Singer, Head of Data Engineering at Amadeus. “Our goal is to create a link between each of these data pools and to allow our customers to extract relevant analysis, while at all times ensuring compliance with applicable legislation and the highest security standards." A secure way to share data could help Amadeus’ customers create more connected, personalized travel experiences for the traveler. 

The company’s data team was already exploring the possibility of moving to a domain-based data mesh architecture—but they needed to know where to start, and how to go about it. Together with Microsoft Cloud architects and Cloud-scale analytics experts, Amadeus began an exciting journey to pursue a new data strategy and data platform. 

Charting the course to a new operating model and platform

Before talking about solution specifics, the teams worked together to envision the functionalities and outcomes Amadeus wanted from its data mesh. “We didn’t jump straight into architecture,” says Alexandre Fourdraine, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft. “We began the conversation with visioning, developing a strong operating model, and change management.” Through daily check-ins and monthly workshops facilitated in part by the Microsoft Cloud-scale analytics team, the plan began to take shape. 

Amadeus aimed to create a secure, well-governed data platform composed of repeatable domains that could scale, to start with a small implementation on day one and grow incrementally. “We’re working with Microsoft to create a domain-driven, distributed architecture built from Microsoft Azure data landing zones,” says Thierry Sabran, Principal Architect at Amadeus. “The data mesh is secured by applying cutting-edge technology to protect the data and is strictly governed through the global access controls and data cataloging of an Azure data management landing zone. Other data landing zones will host data products and analysis applications for one of our many business groups.”

The domains would also function as independent nodes within the larger data mesh, developing unique applications and use cases. “What Amadeus and Microsoft are creating with this data mesh is really the foundation for a new wave of innovation,” says Singer. “By the beginning of 2023, we expect the data mesh to be operating at a global scale, servicing the needs of our customers across the travel industry with strong governance and strict access control measures.”

Creating a safe and secure landing for data

The data mesh is secured and governed by global access control and cataloging through an Azure data management landing zone, which provides governance across all domains with Azure PolicyAzure Monitor, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and a cataloging solution for API and data. “Each data domain’s assets are hosted and serviced by its owner group, and data is shared as a product available to other domains to use,” explains Sabran. “All data contained in the data mesh will be managed in accordance with strict security measures.”

Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) is at the foundation of the data mesh architecture. It is where all the data is stored and accessed, and its scalability and resiliency enable Amadeus to store petabytes of data. Much of this is personal data that is subject to stringent requirements. The data mesh also enables strong computational data governance through the codification of the various security and compliance policies—such as enforcing encryption and applying the correct labelling. Amadeus uses dedicated ADLS containers and specific data tagging and naming convention for adherence to rigorous processing policies to ensure the data is securely stored, accessed, and monitored.

Azure Databricks and Azure Synapse Analytics provide the platform’s main data processing engine, offering a scalable, independent, and easily manageable Spark environment. This lets Amadeus transform, clean, and shape data as needed to support business intelligence or artificial intelligence. 

Additionally, Azure Machine Learning enables Amadeus’ data scientists and developers to build, deploy, and manage new data models faster than ever. “With Azure Machine Learning, Amadeus can now optimize all data processing processes and reinject them into our final products to generate more—and more valuable—data that can benefit our customers,” says Singer. 

Adjusting course to streamline architecture

Given the massive scale of Amadeus’ data estate, the company would have to create over 200 Azure data landing zones to service the unique needs of its many lines of business. This was more complex than they wanted. “For scalability reasons, it was going to be difficult to implement hundreds of new top-level data landing zones,” says Sabran. “So instead, we created the Application Workspace: repeatable individual tenants that nest within a data landing zone to give users self-service capabilities while reducing the number of data landing zones by more than half.” 

Imagine a software engineer working on a concept for a new product feature. To build and test the concept, she uses a simple interface to request a new Application Workspace, selecting the solutions and computing power she needs. Within 24 hours, the engineer is hard at work in her Application Workspace, bringing her concept to life. “With this architecture, users working on new use cases do not need to wait weeks or months to have an environment stood up,” says Sabran. “Now, with just a few clicks their Azure resources are automatically provisioned, with high-quality data sets immediately available, with strong governance and access control measures ensure only the right data is processed by the application.” 

Implementing at the speed of organizational change

Amadeus quickly piloted a simple use case. Using high-volume data from travel search engines the organization wanted to demonstrate that the platform would scale while still having the liberty to test, try, fail, and learn. Since then, the company has been iterating to build its new data platform incrementally, in keeping with its data strategy and goals. 

In its first year, Amadeus put over 30 workloads into production. The data mesh is now in its fifth iteration, with each new version delivering new self-service and scaling capabilities coupled with high security standards. At least 10 innovative new projects have already begun development on the new data platform, aiming to bring a new level of sophistication and personalization to travel experiences provided by Amadeus customers. 

Planning for new adventures ahead

Working together with Microsoft, the company hopes to soon achieve three major milestones. The first and closest to fruition of these will be the development of a technological foundation that rapidly optimizes operations, agility, and resiliency on a global scale. 

Built on this foundation, the second milestone will be the creation of a more frictionless experience for travelers everywhere in the world. “If you think about it, travel time is spent doing two main things,” says Singer. “There’s the time when you are working or relaxing, and there’s the time spent waiting at the airport, looking for your luggage, or checking in at your hotel. Data can play a key role in reducing the latter, making travel more enjoyable.”

Once this is accomplished, Amadeus and Microsoft will work on the third shared goal of creating the world’s most trusted travel data ecosystem. “Travel is life,” says Singer. “It connects people, it connects countries, it connects businesses. And thus, it allows us to better understand the world in which we live and helps us grow. This is what Amadeus enables—and we’re doing it faster and better than ever before.”

“When a person travels, they go through several channels, generating data each time. Our goal is to create a link between each of these data pools to allow our customers to extract relevant analysis, while at all times ensuring compliance with applicable legislation and the highest security standards.”

Joel Singer, Head of Data Engineering, Amadeus

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