American hospitality company Choice Hotels has achieved a significant technological milestone after migrating its entire system infrastructure to the cloud.
The company's recent closure of its last data centre marks the completion of a five-year journey towards digital transformation, now operating entirely on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The cloud migration will allow Choice Hotels to swiftly adapt to real-time market conditions and provide a flexible and scalable platform.
The cloud infrastructure benefits not only the company but also the owners and operators within the system.
With the cloud's capabilities, Choice Hotels can now update its hotel-facing operations and management tools efficiently, integrating advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to drive profitability and enhance guest experiences.
The transition to AWS Cloud is a core element of Choice Hotels' long-term technology roadmap.
Choice Hotels chief information officer Brian Kirkland said: “By moving all of our systems to the cloud, we're ensuring that our franchisees have up-to-the-minute access to the latest innovations, saving time and money while providing industry-leading distribution and digital systems throughout the competitive hotel booking journey.”
The process involved decommissioning more than 3,729 servers, retiring over 300 applications, and migrating more than 250 applications.
AWS sales, marketing, and global services senior vice-president Matt Garman said: “Choice Hotels leaned in big and early on the cloud, which helped them innovate, scale, pivot, and become a more sustainable business over the last five years.
“The hotel company has a cloud-first mindset that permeates every part of their business from improved operations to extraordinary customer service, and we're excited to see what they do next.”
The hotel’s collaboration with AWS began in 2015 with the development of a cloud-based central reservation system (CRS), named choiceEDGE.
At its inception, choiceEDGE was recognised as the hotel industry's first new CRS in over three decades.
Now, with its infrastructure fully cloud-based, Choice Hotels is poised to continue its trajectory of innovation, leveraging AI to generate even greater business value for its franchisees.
Last month, Choice Hotels broke ground on a new extended-stay hotel, Everhome Suites Cheyenne, in Wyoming, US.
