What can a 90-year-old company bring to today’s digital, data-driven, mobile economy? Are they necessarily handicapped compared to younger companies with less legacy baggage?

Delta Air Lines Inc. is sallying into the world of modern information technology and actually blending in its old stuff — and staff — for the better. “Legacy’s like a four-letter word when it comes to technology,” said Rahul Samant (pictured), executive vice president and chief information officer of Delta. “Everywhere else we take great pride in our 90-plus-year legacy, but not so much with our aging technology.”

Nonetheless, Delta has managed to work two big gems from its many years in business into its modernization initiatives. The first is the massive store of data it’s collected over the years. The second is the expertise of its seasoned IT team. Sandwiched with its many fresh software-engineering hires, they complete the comprehensive skill set needed to modernize a legacy airline, according to Samant.

Samant spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu) and John Walls (@JohnWalls21), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during Red Hat Summit in Boston. They discussed how Delta blends old and new into its digital-transformation initiatives (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Something old, something new

In 2018, Delta launched an enterprise-wide digital-transformation initiative targeting both its employees and customers. It found that it was quite rich in data, and this was fertile ground for new projects.

“Data was strewn all over the company. We know a lot about our customers, but we hadn’t brought it together,” Samant said.

Using application program interfaces, it is starting to build use cases on top of its integrated data repositories. It is focusing heavily on service recovery. Poor weather, technical issues, delays, cancellations, lost luggage, and other snafus can throw a wrench in customer journeys.

“That’s where we’re applying the single view of the customer, because we know the history of all your interactions with us,” Samant stated.

Delta has a seasoned IT team that understands the ins and outs of airline-related issues. It is also hiring many new team members versed in cloud, APIs, and other modern, in-demand IT skills. The teams are transfusing their knowledge and skills to each other. This is so that, as one team, they can holistically further Delta’s mission to modernize, Samant concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Red Hat Summit 2019. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Red Hat Summit. Neither Red Hat Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE