Transport for London moves to Windows Azure cloud computing platform

Today, Microsoft and Transport for London (TfL) announced the move of TfL’s Developers Area and their new Trackernet data feed to the Windows Azure Platform.  

One of the clear benefits for TfL with the Windows Azure Platform is it’s scalability, which is resilient enough to handle several million requests per day and will enable TfL to make other feeds available in the future via the same mechanism, at a sustainable cost.

Additionally, TfL also announced that the latest data feed to be added to the TfL’s Developers Area and onto   Windows Azure is ‘Trackernet’ -an innovative new real time display of the status of the Tube network.   Trackernet is able to display the locations of trains, their destinations, signal aspects and the status of individual trains at any given time.  This works by taking four data feeds from TfL’s servers and making it available to developers and the public via Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform, allowing developers to write applications better suited for London commuters and travelers.

Chris MacLeod, TfL’s Director of Group Marketing, said: “This is great news for TfL passengers. We are committed to making travel information available to passengers how and when they want it. Trackernet – which will lead to some new apps and which many developers have already tested for themselves – is a great example of how TfL is using new technologies to provide better travel tools for public transport users. ”

More information about today’s new is available on the Windows Azure Blog.