Optimizing global journeys through secure data connectivity
Amadeus leverages Databricks to reimagine passenger personalization
virtual machines run daily on Databricks
clusters run daily on Databricks
use cases currently running on Databricks
Operating in over 190 countries, Amadeus provides cutting-edge solutions to the travel industry, including services for more than 400 airlines and over 1 million hotels. To efficiently handle the high volumes of data from various platforms and optimize operational costs, Amadeus recognized the need to migrate to the cloud and enhance their data management capabilities. By adopting the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform on Azure, Amadeus has embraced a future-focused approach to data democratization and secure sharing. This transition supports faster innovation and enables both internal teams and customers to benefit from more personalized travel experiences. By leveraging the Databricks Platform to create a Data Mesh, Amadeus can seamlessly integrate diverse data sources to predict, plan and deliver exceptional and tailored travel experiences at scale.
On-premises systems create maintenance complexity at scale
Amadeus technology powers transactions for booking flights, hotels, airport check-ins, and for managing business travel expenses. Processing over 10 petabytes of data from airlines, airports, hotels, travel agents and online resources, the company is dedicated to delivering personalized travel experiences through data and analytics. Recognizing the need to modernize their data intelligence platform, Amadeus sought to further enhance their capabilities without compromising their strict focus on data security and governance.
Following several acquisitions, Amadeus found themself dealing with various systems and tools, leading to possible data silos and potentially redundant analyses as well as inaccuracies and data duplication. Alessio Annuzzi, Principal Engineer at Amadeus, highlighted the challenge: “We needed to eliminate data duplication caused by consistency issues, which complicated the auditing, governance and security of data across multiple technologies. On top of that, different user profiles required different tools — data engineers preferred Scala, while data analysts worked with various versions of Spark using SQL or Python. This increased complexity and required more resources.” Additionally, securely handling and sharing data with customers is essential, as Amadeus consistently adheres to data governance standards and user consent requirements across all the jurisdictions in which they operate.
To securely deliver faster data and AI-driven outcomes for both internal teams and customers, Amadeus sought to revamp their infrastructure to support advanced use cases more efficiently and securely.
Secure data democratization and governance with Databricks
The Amadeus team standardized data management on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform on Azure, leveraging a unified architecture to drive organizationwide data usage and seamless cross-team collaboration. “The Databricks Platform allows us to centralize data in a single platform where data analysts and engineers can log in, browse data directories stored in the Data Mesh and start new use cases. It’s much easier to redeploy this technology than to manage different solutions in our blueprint,” Annuzzi explained.
Through a combination of self-paced learning and onsite training provided by Databricks Academy, Amadeus teams are scaling their platform intelligence globally. Teams working on data can now better construct high-performing ETL pipelines for ingestion into the Amadeus Data Mesh on Delta Lake — accelerating time to insight and delivery of new data-driven experiences to customers. After partition pruning and data ordering, the data is published in the mesh and processed. Depending on SLAs and associated processing steps, Amadeus can easily build several pipelines using Delta Lake and Delta Sharing as the standard format. This efficiency, coupled with the governance provided by Unity Catalog, allows Amadeus to combine data to add more value for customers, product development and internal use cases from other data domains.
Unity Catalog also helped Amadeus break down data silos, uncovering previously hidden data due to regulatory restrictions. Now, securely available to those who need it, the data provides new insights and enables analytics for use cases that were not possible before. Databricks SQL further enhances accessibility, allowing most users to easily access data while maintaining security and governance through fine-grained access controls. “Many of our workloads are SQL-based,” Annuzzi explained. “Databricks SQL boosts our data analysts’ ability to analyze data with greater efficiency and scalability.”
Preparing for customer demand by predicting traveler behavior
Since moving to the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, Amadeus has further improved their efficiency in handling complex tasks. The company now manages 100 use cases in production, with 950 internal users operating over 20,000 clusters and 60,000 virtual machines each day, allowing Amadeus to better manage their demanding workload. Amadeus has implemented three primary ETL processing pipelines to handle most travel-related use cases, providing integrated visibility across passenger journeys. “The primary goal for airlines is revenue management: filling a 200-seat plane with passengers who will generate the highest revenue,” Singer explained. By using dynamic pricing, forecasting and personalization, airlines can adjust ticket prices based on demand, market rates and the need to balance prices with traveler interest.
Amadeus also analyzes customer market trends to forecast future demand, tracking how prospects move from searching to booking flights, hotels, rental cars and activities. By examining factors like travel timing and delays between journey touchpoints, Amadeus helps predict traveler engagement at each stage, all while ensuring that data and insights meet the highest security standards. This approach allows for personalized messaging during peak search and purchase periods, boosting both customer satisfaction and revenue potential.
Using Databricks has led to faster data processing and increased platform efficiency. Now, Amadeus plans to tackle new challenges and use cases including adding multicloud compatibility, detailed pipeline cost analyses and enhanced personalization through data integration, all while maintaining stringent regulatory and compliance standards. Singer added, “Databricks helps to standardize our data platform, unlocking many more opportunities. Connecting traveler information across systems will make data sharing key, driving further investment and use of this technology.”
