Teaming with Microsoft to sell a virtual Boeing 737 in the cloud
September 6, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Thanks to help from Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform, Boeing is taking its virtual 737 into the cloud.
Boeing is rolling out the 737 Explained, what the commercial airplane maker calls a “virtual model of the Boeing 737 generated from thousands of high-resolution photographs that create an immersive 3-D-like model.”
We told you in August about 737 Expanded and how Boeing was using the Azure platform and cloud-based technology to market the 737. The 100- to 215- seat, single-aisle 737 is the world’s best-selling commercial aircraft. And now Boeing is launching 737 Expanded to allow Boeing sales people to show details of the aircraft on different devices.
“We were looking for a new way to communicate the essence of the Boeing 737,” said Diana Klug, director of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a statement. “737 Explained is one of the best marketing tools I’ve seen because it allows us to show prospective customers the new features and improvements without bringing them to an airport.”
Real 737s on the assembly line. (Boeing photo).
The 737 Explained is built on the Windows Azure platform and gives Boeing customers a way to experience the aircraft without having to actually be next to one.
The commercial aircraft giant has already been using the software giant’s technology to create a virtual tour of the next-generation Boeing 737 plane, using Kinect, Silverlight Deep Zoom, and Windows 7 Touch and Azure.
Digital marketing agency Wire Stone created Boeing 737 Explained, an interactive marketing tool to help Boeing pitch the aircraft to potential buyers. While Wire Stone is based in the Silicon Valley, the Boeing Kinect work took place at the agency’s Seattle office.
In what is being billed as an early commercial non-entertainment use of Kinect, Wire Stone says it integrated Kinect and other Microsoft technology for Boeing to use in trade shows and other venues that can support massive displays where Boeing 737 Explained can be viewed in real-world dimensions.
Wire Stone CTO Jon Baker said by taking the virtual 737 to the cloud, it allows Boeing to present the aircraft on different types of devices.
“We wanted to use a cloud-based imple-mentation so that we had the flexibility to increase the number of server instances supporting the application in order to keep performance levels very high,” Baker is quoted in a Microsoft case study post. “We tested three different cloud platforms. We felt that Windows Azure would give us the greatest performance and flexibility.”
