IBM signs $85m technology service deal with Emirates

US technology firm IBM has announced a 10-year managed services deal with Dubai airline Emirates worth roughly $85m.

The deal, completed in Q3 of 2017, expands upon a previous 10-year agreement between the two signed in June 2016 that was worth $300m.

Read: IBM signs technology services deal with Dubai’s Emirates Airline

Under the terms, IBM will take over the day-to-day management of Emirates’ IT infrastructure with the aim of improving business application performance and producing operational savings.

The technology firm will also manage Emirates’ backup systems and implement a private cloud solution at the airline’s two Dubai data centres.

This will give Emirates staff access to a self-service portal managed by IBM to order infrastructure services.

Other services provided by IBM will include data centre networking to provide the carrier’s staff with IT and business applications remotely across its footprint of 155 cities.

“With its expanding global footprint, it is imperative that Emirates’ IT operations are streamlined and accessible to its employees anywhere and anytime, and this is where our expertise comes into play to achieve this,” said Amr Refaat, general manager, IBM Middle East and Pakistan

The 2016 deal included infrastructure as a service solutions for passenger support systems and the redesign of a passenger service system to streamline operations.