Client
Raiffeisen Bank AvalWeb-site: https://www.aval.ua
About Client
JSC Raiffeisen Bank Aval was registered on March 27, 1992 (as Joint-Stock Post-Pension Bank Aval until September 25, 2006). In October 2005, it was acquired by Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG, Austria (Raiffeisen Bank International AG since October 2010). As of March 31, 2016, RBI Group holds a 68.28% stake in the Ukrainian bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development—30%.
Raiffeisen Bank Aval provides a wide range of standard and modern banking services to over 2,600,000 clients through a nationwide network that included 577 locations as of end-March 2016.
Raiffeisen Bank Aval is the Ukrainian banking sector leader in terms service quality. According to GfK-Ukraine, a major market research institute, the reputation of Raiffeisen Bank Aval exceeds the market average.
Tasks
On the back of the bank’s rapidly growing information flow, a need to improve data storage reliability, expand capacity, and increase performance arose in 2007. The bank’s data storage system had to responsively handle the requests of front and back offices, on which the continuity of business processes depended.
Criteria
After the analysis was completed, the choice was made in favour of Hitachi Data Systems hardware in view of the following main aspects:
- Better system scalability: the flagship solution in the line could run up to 480 disks, up to 16 GB if cache memory and up to 8 fibre channel ports
- Better system reliability: hardware RAID 5 and 6, each disk shelf is connected to the system controllers with 4 fibre-channel loops
- Higher performance owing to multiprocessor architecture of the controllers with functional load separation between different controller blocks
- Transparent data allocation monitoring for the admin staff
- Caching optimisation capabilities due to Hitachi Cache Partitioning mechanism that can adapt cache partitions to certain application loads.
Solutions
IT Infrastructure ModernizationProducts
Hitachi Data Systems
Advantages
IT experts of the bank experience of working with disaster-proof solutions based on Hitachi hardware, HDS technology, and HP servers, which also spoke in favour of Hitachi-based system suggested by SI BIS.
During the project, SI BIS specialists modernised the bank’s storage infrastructure, expanding it with two middle-range Hitachi TagmaStore Adaptable Modular Storage AMS 500 arrays, which had proved their performance and reliability back when they were tested at SI BIS testing rig and later at a Raiffeisen Bank Aval location.
Results
The new Hitachi Data Systems hardware enabled the Bank to serve its customers more efficiently while providing the possibility for quick introduction of new and well-proven technologies so that bank’s customers can benefit from the latest banking services.
The solution also enabled deployment of applications in the new infrastructure, leveraging the investments to the fullest and providing additional returns through better coordination of the IT with objectives of the business.