An online interface into the Galileo airline reservation system
promises to open up flight information to a raft of new travel
sites and information services B2B services offer travel
information to all.
Just under three years ago a group of developers from Galileo, an
airline reservation company in Denver, attended a Microsoft
conference on .net.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, chief executive at Microsoft,
presented their vision of business IT systems seamlessly
communicating with one another using XML web services. In one
example, Microsoft showed a video presentation of how a mobile
phone user in the US could electronically book an appointment with
a local GP and automatically have their health insurance details
sent to the clinic.
The team from Galileo were inspired and, on their return, convinced
Riaan van Schoor, manager for e-solutions at Galileo, that web
services would revolutionise airline reservations. Van Schoor
sponsored the project and, after 41,000 hours of development,
Galileo introduced a web services interface to its global
distribution system for airline reservations and flight
information.
In 1994 Galileo began offering a Windows-based connection to their
system using Windows' DDE (dynamic data exchange) technology to
access the back-end host systems. Windows OLE (object linking and
embedding) technology was introduced as an interface in 1999,
followed by XML in 2000.
Industry commentators have long regarded linking internal systems
as one of the biggest benefits of web services. Many see true
business-to-business web services as a long way off, as the
standards for inter-business transactions are still evolving. Even
Microsoft has adapted its original vision.
Speaking recently to Computer Weekly, Simon Edwards, country
manager in the UK and EMEA for Microsoft Business Solutions, said,
"By the end of the decade we will see the decade run on web
services."
True business-to-business web services may be many years away, but
Galileo and other companies in the travel sector could point the
way forward for web services technology.
Business drivers
There were three main business drivers for the project. Firstly,
web services would reduce the need for Galileo's customers to
master mainframe host connectivity. Galileo saw an opportunity to
provide airline reservation information to online travel sites and
other websites that required this information, but linking into
Galileo needed to be simplified.
Previously, developers needed to understand the airline business to
use Galileo in their applications, but this business logic has now
been encapsulated in web services. "New age content providers do
not want to deal with host-to-host connectivity," van Schoor said.
"This allows us to attract customers who do not want to learn our
API." For example, there are now web services for booking flights,
querying arrival and departure times, and for planning trips.
It is not just travel companies that could use the web services
interface with Galileo. Van Schoor said beta users include a Saudi
firm developing an SMS-based travel information service. Such
services could also be made available to taxi drivers to give
accurate information on when a flight has landed.
The second driver was flexible and cost-effective client access
into the Galileo system. Prior to web services support, a business
that wanted to run Galileo required a dedicated Windows system
connected over a leased line direct to the Galileo datacentre in
Denver. "In Europe, getting a leased line to Denver is difficult.
It is easier to connect over the internet," van Schoor said.
Some customers wanted Unix and other non-Windows systems.
Furthermore, the Windows system needed to be configured and
maintained. Customers can now connect over the internet from any
device that understands Soap and XML. "A short-term benefit of
using web services is that customers do not have to configure our
software," van Schoor said. "We are using internet technology to
drive down costs and expose access to the system."
Another area Galileo web services could be deployed is in corporate
travel. By linking to the Galileo reservation web service, a
corporate travel agent could offer business travellers a web page
hosted on their company's internal website to provide airline
bookings. "For the travel agent, the cost of rolling out this
service is nominal," van Schoor said.
The third and biggest business opportunity was the provision of
additional content via the Galileo system. "The most significant
impact of web services is interfacing with other services," van
Schoor said.
In particular, web services will offer a link with car rental firm
Avis and a number of US hotel chains including Ramada and Days Inn,
all owned by Galileo's parent company Cendant. "We can cross-sell
within the group," van Schoor said. External information allows
Galileo to provide other web services such as weather
reports.
The architecture
The web services architecture evolves an XML application
programming interface called XML Select that Galileo began offering
in 2000.
Robert Wiseman, chief technology officer at Galileo, said, "Web
services are platform agnostic." While XML Select required
customers to run a Windows 2000/XP desktop, customers can now use
any system to access Galileo, as long as they connect over the web
and use Soap and XML.
XML is used to create what Wiseman describes as "clever middleware"
to provide an interface into the airline reservation data stored in
Galileo's host computer systems and third-party data feeds. The web
services are run in the "business logic" layer of the Galileo
architecture, and communicate via the XML middleware.
As a cost driver, Wiseman said, "We are looking to deploy Linux
wherever we can using commodity PC servers." This has meant that
the business logic layer will run a mixture of Linux and Unix and
the open source Jakata Tomcat application server from the Apache
Software Foundation, which supports Java servlet and Java
Server.
Wiseman said some services would be built using Java 2.0 Enterprise
Edition and Enterprise Java Beans built on IBM's Websphere
platform. These will also run on Linux where possible.
Both Java and .net services will be supported, and security is
handled through a gateway at the front-end of the architecture.
Wiseman said Galileo would be looking to evolve its web services
architecture to re-engineer its applications. "Re-usability is a
big driver," he said.
Global collaboration
Galileo is one of four global distribution systems for national and
international airlines. It was formed in the early 1980s by Air
Canada, Aer Lingus, Alitalia, British Airways, KLM, United Airlines
and US Airways. The system supports about 47,000 travel agents
worldwide over an IP network and handles 350 million transactions
daily. Prior to global distribution systems, booking a seat for a
flight through a travel agent was often a manual process.
Web services technology is now becoming a driving force in the
travel industry, according to Ian Tunnacliffe, an analyst with
research firm Giga Information Group. "The days of a proprietary
mainframe reservation system are rapidly disappearing," he
said.
Although one of the barriers to the general availability of
business-to-business web services has been a lack of standards, the
travel industry operates under strict guidelines. "The travel
industry has always been ahead of the technology curve because
there is an understanding of co-operation," said Tunnacliffe.
Galileo web services
- Galileo will offer six main web services: a trip planner; a
reservation builder; flight information services; travel code
translator; an itinerary builder; and access to its XML Select
API
- The architecture supports other web services such as car
rentals hotel bookings and weather reports
- There is no need for a dedicated leased line to Galileo's
datacentre in Denver because web services can be accessed over the
internet
- Smart XML middleware provides access to host flight information
systems
- Galileo has developed web services in both Java 2.0 Enterprise
Edition and .net l Where possible, web services are run on
low-cost Intel PCs configured with Linux and the open source
application server Tomcat l Unix and IBM Websphere are used for
web services that require high transaction throughput.
Case study: Virgin TravelStore
Leigh Brazier, development manager at online travel company
Virgin TravelStore, sees plenty of scope to simplify his workload
using Galileo's web services. The company currently runs a database
of discount air fares that uses Galileo to check for seat
availability.
Previously the flight information required Windows 2000 servers,
an application based on Microsoft's Com+ architecture and a leased
line. Now, he said, "Galileo hosts the applications, which reduces
my management headaches."
Brazier said he would no longer need to run a leased line to
Galileo's Denver headquarters, resulting in substantial savings.
There is also the question of reliability. "When the network goes
down, we lose our flight information," he said.
Brazier is looking to develop an application with Galileo's web
services within Virgin TravelStore's call centre. Unlike a customer
who logs into the site from outside, when operators take a call
from a customer they can only see the database of discount fares.
Operators had to go into Galileo separately to check if seats are
available.
Brazier said creating a seamless link between the discount air
fares database and seat availability information from Galileo would
have required a second leased line to the call centre from Denver.
With web services, this connection to Galileo can now be made over
a standard internet connection.
Another bonus for Brazier is the business logic layer, which he
believes will offer a far easier API for the Galileo system.
Brazier said programming Galileo used to be difficult. "When I
first started using Galileo it was quite complex as you needed
travel industry knowledge to decode the information it provided.
You can't really go on a training course. You have to build this
knowledge in-house," he said.
www.virgintravelstore.com