WORLDSPAN DATA CENTER:

A MARRIAGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND STRUCTURAL EFFICIENCY

Formed in 1990, WORLDSPAN is a global communications and electronic distribution vehicle for more than 400 travel service providers throughout the world. Participating travel associates include airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines, rail services tour operators entertainment and theater ticket services, insurance providers and numerous other vendors of travel-related products and services. WORLDSPAN provides this global database of information, advanced reservations capabilities, and a broad selection of distributed travel automation products to more than 12,000 travel agency subscribes in more than 30 countries. WORLDSPAN also provides data processing and network communication services for Northwest, TWA, Abacus (the Asia/Pacific CRS), and a number of smaller airlines. These transaction processing tasks are performed in WORLDSPAN's new data center located in Atlanta, Georgia.

Construction of the data center was completed in August, 1992. It is a union of technology and structural efficiency, constructed to withstand disasters and to be self-sufficient in the event of power interruptions. Construction specifics include:

• three stories encompassing a total of 165,720 square feet;
• 92,160 square feet of computer rooms - larger than two football fields;
• 13,210 cubic yards of concrete - enough to build a 50 mile sidewalk, four feet wide and four inches thick;
• over 800 tons of reinforcing steel;
• separate fire safety features for each computer room;
• slanted sub-floor in computer rooms to channel water away from equipment in the event the sprinkler system engaged;
• on-site million gallon capacity water cooling plant;
• two 1,350-ton centrifugal water chillers feeding 3.7 miles of chilled and condenser water piping;
• three rooftop air handling units cycling 204,000 cubic feet per second;
• over 1,800 industrial batteries, constantly charged, which together with the uninterruptible power systems (UPS) provide clean power to computers;
• 132 miles of high voltage electrical cable providing power to the building and systems;
• 50 miles of cooper wiring and fiber optics interconnecting computer equipment.

Computer equipment installed at the data center includes:

• a combination of IBM 3090 and ES/9000 computers capable of handling 592 million instructions per second;
• over 2,000 IBM 3390 direct access storage devices (DASD) holding in excess of 4,016 billion characters;
• over 250 IBM 3490 cartridge drive tapes;
• IBM 3745 and Stratus communications front-end processors;
• state-of-the-art fiber optic data channels inter-connecting computers and storage devices; and
• a range of communications circuitry from low speed to T-3 capabilities.

The backbone operating system is TPF. To effectively and timely process all transactions requires a CPU complex of multiple TPF application processors managed by a TPF front end system. Data Network operations are conducted using a wide variety of traditional and more current technology communication protocols via 3745s and STRATUS communication front end system. Some special access services are provided via proprietary DEC and Tandem systems. All these components comprise a processing complex capable of 1,500 transactions per second - the majority of which are completed with one second.

VM and MVS operating systems are also important components required to complete all processing requirements. They handle E-Mail, business systems, data network management functions and the preparation of flight schedules and itinerary/ticket pricing for use within the TPF system. These systems also provide extensive capability to support programmer development, testing and a detailed customer acceptance process.

WORLDSPAN Applications Development is supported both within Kansas City and Atlanta development centers. There is a constant and consistent process to upgrade functionality and services used by our travel agents, travel service providers and airlines. A strict Change Management and Scheduling process assures appropriate levels of quality and reliability prior to introducing change to our production systems.

Because so many customers depend on our consistent and reliable services, extensive back-up systems are in place, with no one part entirely dependent on another. Hardware, software and facility systems have built in redundancies -- immediately available should any single part fail. In fact, if the world should come to an end, systems within the WORLDSPAN data center could continue operating seven days later. Back-up systems include:

• two separate power feeds from the electric power company and two independent paths for data network feeds;
• four 8-cylinder 2,440 kilowatt Caterpillar generators- the largest generator installation in Caterpillar history;
• two 20,000-gallon underground storage tanks to supply emergency fuel to the generators for a minimum of one week;
• two 3,000 KVA uninterruptible power systems (UPS); and
• by-pass circuitry to automatically transfer to utility power should the UPS fail.

The elaborate support and backup systems fall in line with WORLDSPAN's goal to be the preferred source of information and transaction processing services worldwide, committed to customer satisfaction and value for its stakeholders. "Our mission," said Skip Powell, the data center's director, " is to run the data center processing systems without customer interruption."