Matson, a Honolulu-based shipping firm with 22 vessels serving Micronesia, the South Pacific and North America, has closed its four in-house data centers in favor of using Amazon Web Services, the Seattle-based tech company announced this morning.
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Having spent several years modernizing applications, “we were ready to . . . migrate onto a single cloud platform, which we view as the optimal strategy,” said Peter Weis, Matson’s CIO, in a news release. He said Matson chose AWS based on security, performance and cost benefits.
The announcement comes as AWS, the leading public-cloud company, prepares to hold its annual re:Invent conference Tuesday through Thursday in Las Vegas this week. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure have been touting their respective customer wins in the cloud, with Elon Musk’s OpenAI initiative recently choosing Azure as its preferred cloud service for running experiments.
Matson’s move to Amazon Web Services is resulting in faster performance, increased reliability and security, and IT infrastructure cost savings, Weis said. Having moved entirely to the cloud, “we are now free to focus on further innovation.”
AWS worked closely with Matson during the migration, said Mike Clayville, AWS VP of worldwide sales.
Matson requires precise tracking of vessels, trucks, and customer shipments as they move around the world. Matson’s customers need to know where their shipments are at any moment and when they’re going to arrive. All these applications now run on the AWS cloud, including Matson’s custom-built order-to-cash booking and billing systems, terminal operations, equipment management, U.S.-wide logistics applications, and customer-facing website.
In addition to ocean-going vessels, Matson offers trucking and rail shipment. The publicly traded company reported revenue of $500 million and net income of $25 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
