Air travel operator selects Citrix partner for major web acceleration project to accelerate performance of critical booking application

Air travel operator selects Citrix partner for major web acceleration project to accelerate performance of critical booking application

Ryanair has signed a new contract IT services company Maxima to support the airline's business-critical web booking application by implementing the latest web acceleration technology from Citrix.

Maxima is an Irish-based Citrix Solution Adviser, and will implement seven NetScaler MPX 9500 hardware appliances to enhance server load balancing, improve web traffic management, increase security levels and substantially lower Ryanair's online operating costs.

The provider will support the NetScaler implementation with a three-year Gold level support agreement. In a separate contract, Maxima will also provide ongoing day-to-day support for Ryanair's broader Citrix-enabled virtualised infrastructure.

Maintaining highest performance

"Online booking is obviously a critical service for Ryanair – particularly as our traffic volumes continue to grow – so it's essential that our web infrastructure performs to the highest level. Having assessed the market, it was clear that Maxima not only had the in-depth expertise in Citrix's core web acceleration technologies, but also had the proven implementation skills and competitive prices we required," commented Ryanair's IT director, Eric Neville. "Maxima also convinced us that the NetScaler Platinum Edition was the right choice for Ryanair."

Citrix's NetScaler MPX 9500 Platinum application delivery solutions combine load balancing, content switching and IPv6 support to provide intelligent traffic management and server availability for Ryanair. Data compression is incorporated to speed server response times, while the Platinum specification incorporates a web application firewall that secures Ryanair's applications from the hacker attacks that network firewalls and intrusion prevention systems fail to block. Applications are further accelerated through an AppCache module for static and dynamic caching, while Citrix's EdgeSight for NetScaler technology enables the proactive management of application performance.