Transit Systems has partnered with Macquarie Telecom to revamp its telco and cloud capabilities and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to remain competitive as more transport routes become privatised.
Transit Systems currently provides metro public bus services in New South Wales, Victoria, Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia, as well as bus services in London and Singapore.
As part of the overhaul, Transit Systems has deployed Macquarie Telecom’s mobile SIM cards to all staff, enabling the company to monitor data such as driver performance, acceleration, ticketing information, engine diagnostics, traffic congestion, and passenger loading in real time.
“Historically, a bus might have used one SIM to provide simple voice communication,” Transit Systems group CIO Warren Read-Zorn said.
“The importance of that requirement has not diminished but now we need so much more.
“Our previous environment was incapable of powering the AI capabilities we needed to stay competitive, which inspired the Macquarie overhaul. This started with mobiles and then the consolidation of our two legacy data centres into one.”
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In addition, Transit Systems has deployed Macquarie Telecom’s SD-WAN services to all of its 37 bus depots to manage the speed and uptime of each site’s network when drivers and depots share data.
For each site, Macquarie Telecom is also managing Transit Systems’ national broadband network migration, Transit Systems said, adding that there are also plans to work with Macquarie Telecom to roll out public Wi-Fi to each fleet over time.
“The nature of transport operations is changing and we’re building these capabilities further to meet the new demands of the industry,” said Read-Zorn.
“The ability to evolve these capabilities and add new digital services to meet consumer and tourist demand will be a major consideration for the future operation of transport routes.”
Earlier this year, the cloud services arm of Macquarie Telecom announced a partnership with Microsoft, allowing the Australian company to offer Azure managed services.
With Macquarie Cloud Services officially launching its Azure practice, the company manages cloud workloads offshore for Australian-headquartered businesses.
Prior to the announcement, Macquarie was already working with Microsoft to provide Azure managed services to a number of customers and said the latest arrangement expands its cloud offering, enabling it to bring public cloud into its managed hybrid IT services.
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Source: Networking - zdnet.com
