The outdated IT system of HP turned into threat for Aeroflot

To the middle of 2014 Aeroflot is going to implement and test a new recording system and processing of addresses of IT users based on BMC Remedy software, follows from documentation published on the website of airline.

A system is held for use in Aeroflot and in his subsidiary and dependent companies. It will allow to manage requests of users and the service layer, incidents and changes, the software, including control of compliance to politicians of its use. Using a system it will also be possible to conduct inventory of the equipment and the software, to manage far off devices, to receive the reporting, etc.

As of 2013 in Aeroflot there are 28 critical IT systems, and the number of requests expected at the end of year in a support service - 80.5 thousand, said in the project documentation. For comparison – in 2010 in airline there were only 8 critical systems, and the number of requests for support was 61 thousand.

Prior to the beginning of system implementation on BMC Remedy user support was organized based on the HP solution of Service Desk 4.5. The deputy CEO of Aeroflot for ITKirill Bogdanov told TAdviser that this system was implemented in the company 8 years ago and perfectly proved, however over time its functionality and also technical restrictions led to the fact that for work with a system more and more resources began to be required. In 2013 Service Desk 4.5 within product lifecycle officially stopped supporting HP, he adds.

In documents of Aeroflot on the project it is noted that the termination of HP of support Service Desk 4.5 does not allow to recover in full without significant increase in personnel of Help Desk support system of users after failure, "what will lead to loss of management over technical condition of the critical production, commercial and managerial systems".

"Catastrophic failures in operation of HP Service Desk 4.5 during operation were not if to mean the general time of unavailability of a system more than one hour, - Kirill Bogdanov says. - Several failures were overcome by simple recovery from the backup copy and use of means of reservation of databases, but each time risks of impossibility of complete recovery of service in general increased since there were changes in operating environment and in external systems at which it was not always possible to upgrade interfaces".

In addition to the effects connected with risk of impossibility of complete recovery of a system in case of failure Aeroflot lists in the project documentation more than ten its shortcomings among which – lack of a regular web user interface, lack of effective remedies of accounting of the issued and requested resources, lack of integration with monitoring systems and others.

According to the deputy of a gerdirektor of Aeroflot for IT if not the problems connected with natural need of replacement of a product on its lifecycle, then transition to new generation of a product of HP of Service Desk with preserving of succession would be very interesting.

Search of the solution to it on replacement was begun two years ago, and the crucial importance in the choice of BMC Remedy became implementation of this solution at the international airport Sheremetyevo which is closely integrated with Aeroflot in production process Kirill Bogdanov explained TAdviser.