You delivered an impactful presentation at the recently concluded 14^th IFATSEA Africa Region Meeting in Casablanca Morocco on the subject-matter of the role of ATSEP in a cloud environment. You spoke about the German ANSP DFS’ ambitious project for the modernization of the country’s CNS/ATM environment using data centres and cloud technologies. Could you explain what this transformational project is all about?

Since the project’s initial phase in 2018, the focus has changed and now almost the whole CNS/ATM infrastructure is planned to be affected. Additionally, there is an ATSEP license and a strong regulator in Germany and therefore it was important for our ANSP to have a common view before the talks with our regulator.

And what is the planned operational coverage of this modern CNS/ATM project?

At the beginning, there was the plain idea to transform mainly air traffic services (ATS) systems into a cloud-environment. During the project phase since 2018, the operational coverage has changed and now almost the whole CNS/ATM infrastructure is planned to be transferred to a cloud-based and service-oriented modern infrastructure with modern change- and maintenance-methods.

Given the growing concerns globally regarding the increasing vulnerability of the aviation industry to unlawful and dangerous activities within the global cyberspace, are you not worried about DFS’ choice of cloud technologies for the German CNS/ATM techno-operational environment?

I would say, ‘Yes and no’. Of course, every technology comes with its threats and this is not different with cloud. But, it is one of our main objectives to enhance the cybersecurity in this transformation process. And many vulnerabilities are there today, so the need for improvements already exists.

Issues revolving around data privacy and ownership are critical in the adoption of cloud computing technologies. What cloud-based model or architecture would you rather suggest that DFS should use?

What we as a union cum association suggested and which, finally, our ANSP DFS is going to implement, is a so-called ‘private cloud’ model with at least one data center on premise and all of the cloud and its special cloud-services will be planned, maintained and commissioned by ATSEP. That was our main point, where we had to convince our ANSP. So, the ANSP is the owner of its data.

Talking about cybersecurity, does the German aviation industry currently has a framework in place for responding to cybersecurity issues?

The German state, just as any other EU country, has a mandatory framework for its “critical infrastructure” and aviation as an industry and the ANSPs are included. But, of course, the structures and processes have to be elaborated and enhanced continuously.

Still talking about DFS’ adoption of cloud technologies in the German CNS/ATM environment, how affordable and cost-effective is this adoption?

If one talks about cloud/data-center infrastructures, many people think about saving money in the short run. But, this can be deceptive. You should not start your cloud project with such a purpose. Anyhow, the cloud-technology opens the opportunity for sharing infrastructure and computing power as well as the use of shared systems between countries.

And what would you say regarding issues revolving around systems interoperability, scalability, service integrity, privacy and security?

Well, in my point of view, this is one of the big future potentials of cloud-technologies. If implemented good, they have the potentials for opening opportunities for interoperability, scalability, and service integrity. The correct realization of privacy and security implementations have to be paid attention to during the whole process.

Could you please paint a picture of the roles and responsibilities of ATSEP in a cloud-based CNS/ATM environment?

In my picture, the ATSEP will be responsible for all the tasks in cloud environments: the conception, design, and ongoing development. Aside from this, hardware-handling, maintenance, commissioning and decommissioning should be part of the responsibility of the ATSEP. This overall job-profile already exists today – the so-called System Reliability Engineer (SRE).

Would you say that German ATSEPs are proficient and competent enough today to handle the twists and turns characteristic of cloud-based operational environments?

Not today, to be candid. But, we are on the way. The existing ATSEP will have to be trained to maintain cloud-based systems. But, for the cloud itself there will be new specially educated and skilled cloud-ATSEP, who have to have the very new job profile SRE as I have already stated.

Talking about issues regarding training, competence, certification, licensing and regulations, how would you describe today’s German ATSEP?

As I have mentioned earlier, the license system is well implemented in Germany since 1993. It was not a big issue to integrate cloud-technology into it. Additionally, the issues of training, competence (including ongoing competence assessment) and licensing/authorization are well organized.

And what would you say about ATSEP training, certification and competence on a Europe-wide level?

Since 2020, the European level on ATSEP training, competence and authorization is quite comparable to the situation in Germany. The EU-implementing rule (EU) 2017/373 prescribes a lot of all these.

Finally, how would you describe the future of cloud computing technology adoption in the global aviation landscape?

In the best case scenario, I could imagine that a lot of neighbour countries could work together very close in a highly interoperable manner and complement each other with ANS-services/systems. The cloud can be the enabler for all that. ◙