News from Air India: Air India said on Tuesday that it has transferred its computational workload to the Cloud and closed its two data centers in New Delhi and Mumbai. According to the announcement, the Tata Group-owned airline expects the change to save it $1 million each year. The complete transfer to Microsoft Azure was coordinated by Air India personnel in Silicon Valley, California, as well as Gurugram and Kochi, India.

"At Air India, we have adopted the 'Cloud-only' mindset for our computational infrastructure. "Cloud is not just about cost savings and operational efficiencies for us; it is a fundamental way to reimagine computing," said Satya Ramaswamy, Air India's chief digital and technology officer.

Several mainframes, hundreds of servers, a vast amount of data, and hundreds of pieces of equipment were used to shift computational workloads to the Cloud. The now-defunct data centers were formerly utilized to boost innovation and automation across the airline's commercial and financial departments. Air India was one of the first airlines in the world to employ high-performance computing and storage in the early days of the computing age.

"Air India's successful migration to Microsoft Azure demonstrates the power and adaptability of the Microsoft Cloud, as well as how we can effectively support global airline leaders like Air India," said Puneet Chandok, president of Microsoft India & South Asia.

Air India, which was acquired by the Tata Group in January of this year, has begun a five-year reform program. The airline also announced many new initiatives for its customer-facing channels and employee experiences. "These innovations will be powered by cloud capabilities in advanced data analytics and AI, such as Generative AI, that can now be embedded seamlessly all through the company's applications," Air India said in a press release.