Modernizing Cruise Reservation Systems: A Scalable Data Access Architecture for Digital Transformation

Abstract

The legacy cruise reservation system, being nearly thirty years old, has built up a lot of business logic that makes its modernization a major challenge due to the aging technological support structures. The document presents a new architectural solution in the Cruise Reservation Life Expansion project, which came up with a modular Data Access Layer so as to separate database interactions from business logic. Instead of undertaking wholesale system replacement, the architecture facilitates an incremental change without destroying the functional areas of operation. The design establishes a dual mode functionality of the traditional file I/O and SQL-based access, which are contained within service programs that offer homogeneous interfaces of database functions. The architecture that resulted shows significant gains in performance, maintainability, and extensibility at minimum operational disturbance. The patterns of architecture mentioned can be seen as an important input to the organizations in various fields that have similar modernization challenges of the legacies.