Matson moves its logistics data into the cloud

Pacific ocean regional marine carrier Matson Logistics Inc. has closed all four of its physical data centers and moved that information to a cloud-based platform, IT provider Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) said Monday.

Honolulu-based Matson serves Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, China, and areas of the South Pacific with its fleet of 22 owned vessels, including containerships, combination container and roll-on/roll-off ships, and custom-designed barges. The company requires advanced IT capabilities to enable precise tracking of those assets and customer shipments as they move around the world.

Matson moved its applications from on-premises data centers to the AWS Cloud in order to achieve faster performance, increased reliability and security, and IT infrastructure cost savings, Amazon said. Those applications ensure that the company's vessels, shipping terminals, container equipment, and truck shipments are coordinated. Web platforms also support Matson's custom-built, order-to-cash booking and billing systems, terminal operations, global equipment management, U.S.-wide logistics applications, and customer-facing website.

"Several years ago we set out on a journey to modernize our entire portfolio of enterprise applications and to upgrade and optimize every corner of our IT infrastructure," Matson CIO Peter Weis said in a release. "Once we completed our application modernization, we were ready to culminate this transformation by migrating onto a single cloud platform, which we view as the optimal strategy to sustain world-class customer service and operational reliability."

"We chose the AWS Cloud because it provides unmatched security, performance, and cost benefits," Weis said. "Having moved one hundred percent of our enterprise applications from on-premises data centers to the AWS Cloud, we are now free to focus on further innovation."