The Stellar Cloud takes off; Built for today, ready for tomorrow

LONG BEACH, CA – February 7, 2018 – Rockwell Collins, a leader in aviation and high-integrity solutions for commercial and military customers around the world, and Silicon Valley aviation technology innovator Stellar Labs, Inc. (“Stellar”) today announced the launch of the Stellar Cloud, a next-generation software delivery infrastructure platform for business aviation solutions, built on the industry-leading and proven Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) infrastructure. 

The Stellar Cloud is the preferred infrastructure environment for Rockwell Collins’ ARINCDirect Flight Operations System (“FOS”) and the foundation of future jointly developed next-generation flight operations management solutions. Current FOS customers being hosted by either Rockwell Collins or Stellar will receive a seamless, no additional cost, no hassle upgrade to the Stellar Cloud.

“For more than 20 years, the FOS software has set the standard for business aviation operators,” said Dave Poltorak, vice president, Business Aviation for Rockwell Collins. “Now FOS customers can effortlessly take advantage of this highly advanced, secure, scalable and reliable application deployment environment. This is a huge win for our customers and one reason why we entered into the strategic partnership with Stellar.”

Performance, Scalability, Security, and Reliability

The Stellar Cloud delivers the experience and mobility one would expect from modern applications with the performance, scalability, security, and reliability of modern, global cloud infrastructure. Customers upgrading to the Stellar Cloud should expect significant improvement in systems responsiveness with nearly instantaneous response to common user tasks, such as building trips and quotes. “This is the fastest I’ve ever seen FOS run in any environment,” said Fred Powell, Stellar Vice President of Operator Systems and FOS creator.

By leveraging AWS’s native auto-scaling, elastic load-balancing, replication, and auto-provisioning of computing resources, the Stellar Cloud scales seamlessly to match both operator growth and peak day demands. The Stellar Cloud offers advanced security and compliance capabilities including data center and data storage localization, continuous security monitoring, and advanced two-factor authentication – all with a 99.9 percent availability guarantee and best in class back-up, failover and recovery services.

Operational Efficiency

“The Stellar Cloud is the first step in our transformative vision of a 21st-century business aviation ecosystem,” said Stellar co-founder and CEO David Fox. “Operators are in the business of managing their fleet and growing their profits. FOS – powered by the Stellar Cloud allows them to focus on their business and leave the administration, upkeep, and advancement of their digital infrastructure to us.”

With the Stellar Cloud, operators no longer need to allocate resources toward managing hardware, software, patches, and upgrades. The Stellar Cloud combines the functionality of FOS with next- generation, integrated support access, including knowledge base, ticket initiation, and self-service password management. For operators who currently run and administer FOS themselves, this provides an opportunity to meaningfully reduce the risk of downtime or data loss caused by system or hardware failure, all while increasing efficiency and security.

The On-Ramp to the Future

FOS-powered by the Stellar Cloud is another step in a long-term partnership between Stellar and Rockwell Collins. The companies are co-developing a unified, next-generation, flight planning, operations, and business platform that will combine all of the market-leading flight operations planning functionality of FOS with Stellar’s innovative commerce and business optimization solutions, enabling operators to compete, grow and win their markets. By upgrading to the Stellar Cloud now, current FOS customers are positioned to join in this market-making journey, taking advantage of upcoming capabilities such as owner access, advanced business intelligence (BI), and operator-to- operator trip collaboration, all integrated with their existing FOS implementation.

“We started Stellar with the vision of transforming the business of business aviation for operators and consumers,” said Stellar co-founder Paul Touw. “Our partnership with Rockwell Collins is instrumental in executing this vision. This announcement marks the completion of the first step of this journey; we’ve taken off, and are just beginning our climb to new heights of achievement. As we like to say at Stellar, the skies are wide open, and we could not be more excited about the future of Stellar, our partnership, and most importantly our joint operator customers.”

Pricing and Availability

This is a seamless upgrade for Rockwell Collins’ hosted FOS and Stellar hosted FOS customers. Customers can schedule their upgrade with their Rockwell Collins or Stellar representatives. For on- premise FOS software customers intending to move to FOS – powered by the Stellar Cloud, Stellar is offering the Stellar On-Ramp promotion. For more information, customers should contact their Rockwell Collins or Stellar account representatives.

ABOUT STELLAR LABS

Stellar Labs builds and delivers innovative flight operations management, commercial management, and global distribution systems for business aviation. Designed in Silicon Valley, Stellar brings together the most advanced technologies and data science to streamline business aviation for operators and travelers alike. For more information, visit www.stellar.aero, like us on Facebook (stellarlabsaero), follow us on Twitter (@stellaraero), or join us on LinkedIn (stellar-labs-inc-).

ABOUT ROCKWELL COLLINS

Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL) is a leader in aviation and high-integrity solutions for commercial and military customers around the world. Every day we help pilots safely and reliably navigate to the far corners of the earth; keep warfighters aware and informed in battle; deliver millions of messages for airlines and airports; and help passengers stay connected and comfortable throughout their journey. As experts in flight deck avionics, cabin electronics, cabin interiors, information management, mission communications, and simulation and training, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of products and services that can transform our customers’ futures

MEDIA CONTACTS

For Stellar
Richard Thomas
VP Marketing
richard@stellar.aero
+1 (415) 997-9961

For Rockwell Collins
Kailen Brant
Media Relations
kailen.brant@rockwellcollins.com
+1 (301) 639-4109