Enabling smarter transportation
When Cubic Transportation Systems was developing a new traffic management solution for cities, the company knew it needed to use the cloud.
A leading provider of intelligent transport solutions and technology services for international government road transport agencies, Cubic had to ensure that its customers could use a scalable, centrally managed platform. “In urban environments today, transportation authorities are relying more on sensors to manage transit traffic across large geographic areas,” says Andy Taylor, Director of Strategy, Cubic Transportation Systems. “Our solution needed to connect those sensors and also be consolidated onto a distributed platform. In addition, the majority of sensor information doesn’t need to be collected 24×7, so the solution had to scale up or down as needed. We knew the cloud was best choice.”
Moving to the Microsoft Azure cloud
Cubic chose to use the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to create its new solution. “We spoke to a number of cloud technology companies, and Microsoft was the most engaged and able to offer the services we needed,” Taylor says. “Microsoft had the cloud solution we wanted. And more importantly, through the CityNext initiative, it had identified that the urban environment was ripe for coordination and consolidation when it comes to improving services and functionality.”
Launching the NextTraffic traffic management solution
Cubic worked with Microsoft to design the NextTraffic architecture, an Azure-based transportation management and control solution that presents the collection, processing, monitoring, controlling, and management of all traffic elements on multiple computer networks in a single place. Customers will use the solution for control of surface transportation and improved utilization of roadnetworks. NextTraffic features:
- Data analytics and visualization combined across multiple transportation options and presented to the user through one common graphical user interface.
- A web-based common operating picture accessible by authorized employees from anywhere, including a tablet or mobile device.
With NextTraffic, transportation authorities and other organizations can take advantage of a consolidated data platform that can be hosted in Azure and scale on demand. “The ability to scale up or down as necessary gives customers an economic advantage, because they’re only paying for the compute resources they’re using,” says Taylor.
The solution also gives customers the ability to meet their compliance requirements. “By moving the management of certification and security compliance to the cloud, our customers can be in compliance while not having the burden of managing the processes themselves,” Taylor says. In addition, NextTraffic offers customers more operational flexibility. “This cost-effective, highly adaptable system gives customers the power to control the traffic within their environments. The platform can ingest a vast amount of information, which transportation authorities can use to make more informed decisions about how to best manage their urban transportation environments. It’s one of the key advantages of basing this platform on Microsoft Azure.”
To see NextTraffic up close, you can visit Cubic Transportation Systems at the ITS European Congress in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 6–9, or at ITS America 2016, June 12–15, in San Jose, California.
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