Heathrow Express guarantees cloud continuity for mobile ticketing application with NCC Group’s Escrow as a Service

Heathrow Express, the fastest route between Central London and Heathrow, has strengthened its partnership with global cyber security and risk mitigation expert, NCC Group, to minimise downtime for its cloud-based mobile ticketing application.

NCC Group will ensure continuity for the business-critical application by creating an exact replica of its unique cloud environment. Its Escrow as a Service solution will provide access to the application in the event of software supplier failure or other unforeseen disruptions, providing ongoing protection for the Heathrow Express brand.

As the first UK train company to launch a fully functional ticketing application, allowing customers to purchase and receive tickets direct to their mobile device, Heathrow Express invested in a cloud-hosted system to support the sales process and streamline the product’s user experience.

With more than 30 years’ experience in the escrow space, working with both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Heathrow Express, NCC Group was trusted to replicate the application’s AWS-hosted cloud architecture, and verify the business’s wider disaster recovery and cloud continuity strategy.

After successfully delivering the solution, Les Freer, Director at Heathrow Express, said: “Speed and reliability is everything to Heathrow Express customers and that goes for our digital applications too. With 18,000 passengers using up to 150 services every day, business continuity was our top priority when we decided to host our pioneering ticketing application in the cloud.

“Making use of the cloud is the latest step in a long history of technology innovation for Heathrow Express and working with NCC Group will safeguard our customer experience and therefore our brand by guaranteeing the application’s availability in the event of failure.”

Ollie Whitehouse, CTO at NCC Group, said: “Cloud technology drives costs down and boosts efficiency, but many businesses are yet to fully adopt cloud-based software due to concerns about its availability in the event of supplier failure, security vulnerabilities or any other unforeseen circumstance.

“Heathrow Express should be praised for refusing to allow security concerns to stifle the innovation that the cloud has brought to its ticketing application. By allowing us to replicate the company’s AWS cloud architecture, Heathrow Express will benefit from peace of mind around their application’s resilience, in turn, allowing their customers to book tickets and travel without disruption. We look forward to helping other businesses benefit from Escrow as a Service as they migrate to the cloud.”

NCC Group’s Escrow as a Service (EaaS) helps organisations to confidently embrace the adoption of cloud technology by assuring the availability of cloud-based software applications. It provides both software suppliers and customers with business resilience, continuity assurance and secure protection for the growing number of systems and services hosted in the cloud.