Switchfly moved to AWS to elevate customer experiences for some of the biggest names in travel.

The obstacles they faced

Because Switchfly’s primary focuses are constant uptime and rapid uptime, a high degree of responsiveness is critical to their customer’s success. When a traveler calls the 800 number because their flight has been canceled, he or she must talk to an agent promptly. Likewise, the software used to manage that booking experience must perform flawlessly and quickly every time.

The company’s major need is for constant uptime and elasticity. It needs to be ready for future expansion and prepared to add new services and features without making changes to a monolithic application.

Facing an on-premises infrastructure of data centers and hardware that would need a physical refresh, Switchfly had to decide whether it wanted to re-commit to on-premises hardware management or move to a cloud environment on Amazon Web Services (AWS). If it migrated, it would do so through the company’s AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), a comprehensive cloud migration program with an outcome-driven methodology.

Migration became the priority

“The decision was made to move to AWS, and we made the cloud-first approach decision for several reasons,” said Ed Estabrook, Chief Technology Officer at Switchfly “A lot had to do with recruitment and speed-to-value — essentially, our ability to turn on new features and services.”

However, before it could make the cut over, the company had to hit aggressive deadlines in exiting the data center. It also needed to fully migrate before a substantial portion of its hardware reached end of life.

Switchfly encountered Rackspace Technology through the recommendation of one of its technology directors, who had previously worked with them.

Through this prior relationship, Rackspace Technology was invited to pitch against two other service providers. According to Estabrook, Switchfly chose Rackspace because “they listened to what we had to say and came back with the most compelling offering, tailored to our specific needs.”