Company Success Stories - FlightAware
AMD64 Technology Helps FlightAware’s Airline Tracking Service ‘Take-Off’ To New Performance Heights
Profile
FlightAware
"We track and deliver information regarding 40 to 70 thousand flights each day, so our infrastructure needed to be up to the task. Additionally, we required a plan for future growth as well as unexpected spikes in usage. The AMD Opteron™ processor has helped ensure we can deliver critical speed and reliability to our customers, all at a ‘budget-friendly’ price. - Daniel Baker, Founder and Chief Executive Officer"
Challenge:
- FlightAware offers real-time airline flight tracking and analysis. In order to deliver this service, FlightAware receives 55 to 70 messages per second from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding 40 to 70 thousand flights each day. The company must process, aggregate and deliver the information to its customers in a timely manner.
- Launched in May 2005, the company was experiencing massive growth (doubling its registered users monthly) and it realized its existing system would soon hit a performance wall. FlightAware Founder and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Baker recognized the company needed to upgrade, and he required a system that was powerful, affordable and scalable, while offering significant support for open source software.
- In addition to managing massive amounts of information on a daily basis, the company’s infrastructure also required bandwidth to handle major unpredicted surges in usage, as demonstrated by the November 2005 Nike corporate jet incident.
Solution:
- The company, which successfully migrated to AMD64 in less than two weeks, is running FreeBSD, PostgreSQL and TCL (Tool Command Language), a popular development language for real-time applications, on 2P AMD Opteron™ Model 250 processors.
- “The combination of the AMD Opteron processor and open source software is amazing—you have enterprise-worthy security and performance at a very competitive price point,” said Baker.
Impact:
- Since implementing the AMD Opteron processor-based system, FlightAware is more effectively managing 15 Web requests per second per day as well as 10x as much traffic during peak hours. “When the Nike corporate jet’s landing gear was stuck in November 2005, the plane circled for hours in Oregon before successfully landing. With the national media attention during that time, we experienced up to 10x the regular usage, and our AMD64 technology-based system did not skip a beat,” Baker said.
- Baker also said, “The AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture is such an innovative technology that we are fully committed to the company long-term. With AMD64, we are on a path to scale continuously without stretching our limited IT funding.”
Organizational Profile
Founded in March of 2005, FlightAware is the first company to offer free flight tracking for both private and commercial air traffic in the United States.
FlightAware's proprietary flight arrival time algorithms combined with a powerful, intuitive and reliable Web-based interface deliver the most capable and useful flight tracking application on the Internet. For more information, please visit www.flightaware.com
Challenge
FlightAware offers real-time airline flight tracking and analysis. In order to deliver this service, FlightAware receives up to 55 to 70 messages per second from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding 40 to 70 thousand flights each day. The company must process, aggregate and deliver the information to its customers in a timely manner. In addition to data it receives from the FAA, FlightAware also incorporates its own vast amount of information, such as details on more than 19,000 airports in the United States and their corresponding longitudes and latitudes, and flight plans for private aircraft.
Launched in May 2005, the company was experiencing massive growth (doubling its registered users monthly) and realized its existing system would soon hit a performance wall. With more than 590 million passengers flying each year (according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics), FlightAware understood that it had an enormous potential for growth. FlightAware Founder and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Baker recognized the company needed to upgrade to x64 architecture, and he required a system that was powerful, affordable and scalable, while offering significant support for open source software.
In addition to managing massive amounts of information on a daily basis, the company’s infrastructure also required bandwidth that could handle major surges in usage, as demonstrated by the November 2005 Nike corporate jet incident. In that instance, the company’s jet experienced landing gear problems and was forced to circle in the air for five hours before successfully landing, and the event was drawing real-time national media attention. During that time, FlightAware’s Web site experienced a 10x increase in usage as people tracked the progress of the plane.
Solution
FlightAware surveyed possible options available on the market, and chose AMD64 technology. The company, which successfully migrated to AMD64 in less than two weeks, is running FreeBSD, PostgreSQL and TCL (Tool Command Language), a popular development language for real-time applications, on 2P AMD Opteron™ Model 250 processors.
“The combination of the AMD Opteron processor and open source software is amazing—you have enterprise-worthy security and performance at a very competitive price point,” said Baker.
“The AMD Opteron processor Model 250 is truly the sweet spot of price/performance,” added Baker. “AMD created a market allowing companies large and small to experience exceptional performance at an amazing price point. The AMD Opteron processor is our standard and we will continue to buy from AMD as our needs grow.”
Impact
Since implementing the AMD Opteron processor-based system, FlightAware is more effectively managing an average of 15 Web requests per second as well as 10x as much traffic during peak hours. “When the Nike corporate jet’s landing gear was stuck in November 2005, the plane circled for hours in Oregon. During this time we experienced up to 10x the regular usage, and our AMD64 technology-based system did not skip a beat,” Baker said.
Baker continued, “The AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture is such an innovative technology that we are fully committed to AMD long-term. With AMD64, we are on a path to scale continuously, without stretching our limited IT funding.”
“We track and deliver information regarding 40 to 70 thousand flights each day, so our infrastructure needed to be up to the task. Additionally, we required a plan for future growth as well as unexpected spikes in usage. The AMD Opteron™ processor has helped ensure we can deliver critical speed and reliability to our customers, all at a ‘budget-friendly’ price.”—Daniel Baker, founder and chief executive officer
About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative microprocessor solutions for computing, communications and consumer electronics markets. Founded in 1969, AMD is dedicated to delivering superior computing solutions based on customer needs that empower users worldwide. For more information visit www.amd.com.
AMD, AMD Opteron, the AMD Arrow logo, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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