A hybrid cloud delivers IT efficiencies, and proprietary business intelligence tools, to help hundreds of hotel owners boost profitability. Credit: Thinkstock At Interstate Hotels and Resorts, a global hotel-management company, one key goal is to use IT resources such as business intelligence (BI) tools to help nearly 440 individual hotel owners succeed in their markets. A move to the cloud has helped the company become more efficient and gain a bigger competitive advantage. The migration to the cloud began in 2012, when Interstate decided to shift away from an IT infrastructure that was aging and too costly to maintain. Internal servers were nearing the end of their life spans and were out of capacity, says CIO Jim Lamb. Interstate also wanted to improve business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities for its far-flung hotel portfolio. Interstate operates in a hybrid cloud, where the presentation layer is provisioned in a multi-tenant, public cloud, while the business logic and data-access layers are provisioned in a private cloud in order to keep company data secure, Lamb says. The cloud makes it easier for IT to deal with so many hotels. “Working with a cloud-based model means deploying once and all hotels have access to it immediately,” he says. Interstate also saw a huge productivity benefit during the annual hotel budgeting process, Lamb says. “Associates were able to create, submit and review budgets with owners quickly and without issues,” he says. Delivering the Dashboard Another big benefit of the cloud is that it enables the company to easily provide access to its proprietary IHR1 dashboard, a suite of BI tools that can be used on iPads and iPhones. “Hotel owners can view a high-level summary of key performance indicators, providing the ability to monitor results and hotel performance in real time,” Lamb says. The market data–including financial figures, results at comparable hotels and areas for improvement–is transformed into daily reports that keep every department focused on the goal of “maximizing owner profitability,” Lamb says. Interstate’s cloud experience is typical for companies replacing traditional IT with cloud-based systems, especially in the services industry, says IDC analyst Benjamin McGrath. “Many companies are finding benefits of the cloud through improved employee productivity or faster access to IT functionality,” McGrath says. “And as large-scale cloud implementation expands from early adopters into the majority of organizations, a hybrid-cloud model is becoming more attractive as a way to realize all the benefits of a public cloud while retaining the security of a private cloud.” Bob Violino is a freelance writer based in New York. Related content brandpost Sponsored by AWS in collaboration with IBM How digital twin technology is changing complex industrial processes forever As the use cases for digital twins proliferate, it is becoming clear that data-driven enterprises with a track record of innovation stand the best chance of success. By Laura McEwan Dec 05, 2023 4 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by AWS in collaboration with IBM Why modernising applications needs to be a ‘must’ for businesses seeking growth Around one-third of enterprises are spending heavily on application modernisation and aiming for cloud native status. The implications for corporate culture, structure and priorities will be profound. By Laura McEwan Dec 05, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation opinion 11 ways to reduce your IT costs now Reorienting IT’s budget toward future opportunities is a big reason why CIOs should review their IT portfolios with an eye toward curbing unnecessary spending and realizing maximum value from every IT investment. By Stephanie Overby Dec 05, 2023 11 mins Budget Cloud Management IT Governance news analysis SAP faces breakdown in trust over innovation plans The company’s plan to offer future innovations in S/4HANA only to subscribers of its Rise with SAP offering is alienating customers, user conference hears. By Peter Sayer Dec 05, 2023 6 mins SAP Cloud Management Innovation Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe