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Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. announced today the successful migration of its shoreside technology infrastructure, including its reservation system and mobile apps, to Amazon Web Services (AWS). This strategic move positions NCLH as one of the first passenger cruise lines to transition its core technology operations to AWS. By leveraging AWS’s proven, secure, and high-performance infrastructure, the Company aims to reduce average processing time, increase availability during peak periods, streamline its operational infrastructure, and enhance the overall cruising experience.
“We are thrilled to be at the forefront of cloud adoption in the cruise industry,” said Georgios Mortakis, NCLH chief information officer and chief information security officer. “Our migration of on-premises workloads to AWS has resulted in significant improvements in performance. This allows us to accelerate innovation and create amazing experiences for our employees, guests, and travel partners. As an example, during our largest traffic event ever for our reservations systems in November 2023, we handled record volumes without any known performance or availability issues.
The 15-month migration to AWS, led by Mortakis and Humberto Pombo, Senior Director of Infrastructure at NCLH, involved relocating over 100 applications, thousands of virtual and physical servers, data centers, and peripheral server rooms to the cloud environments, and peripheral server rooms to the cloud. Collaborating with AWS, NCLH received guidance and operational best practices, including automation, skills, and expertise to modernize outdated legacy systems. This transition enhanced availability, performance, and faster application response times during peak seasons and high-demand promotional events. NCLH can now respond swiftly to market changes, customer expectations, and disruptions. Disaster recovery has become seamless through the use of multiple AWS Availability Zones and Regions for mission-critical applications. The Company has also adopted DevSecOps into its software development processes, integrating security into the development lifecycle. This framework facilitates secure coding practices, automates security testing, and mitigates human errors that could potentially expose vulnerabilities.
NCLH’s determined journey to complete the AWS migration within a tight 15-month timeframe wasn’t without roadblocks and dependencies. “Meticulous planning by the implementation team, leveraging cutting-edge technologies and innovative strategies to streamline the migration process, and an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ attitude were necessary”, Mortakis stated.
With its shore-side migration complete, NCLH is eager to fully harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize its operations. The Company plans to leverage a comprehensive suite of AWS analytics, machine learning, and generative AI services to rapidly prototype new features and services. By using AI-driven insights, NCLH aims to tailor onboard activities and amenities to individual preferences and streamline logistics and supply chain management, ultimately elevating the cruise experience.
“By being an all-in cloud adopter, NCLH is a digital transformer ready to capitalize on the agility, scalability, and innovation the cloud unlocks” said Steven M. Elinson, director, services sector at AWS. “We are excited to expand our collaboration with NCLH as it embarks on this next chapter of cloud-enabled innovation.”
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