Kyiv, Ukraine |  Banks and insurance |  2007 |  Bank Forum |  Solution: IT Infrastructure Modernization

Client

Bank Forum
Web-site: www.forum.ua/

About Client

PJSC Bank Forum is a Ukrainian bank founded in 1994. Its head office is in Kyiv. As of January 1, 2014, the bank’s assets amounted to UAH 10,404,000,000, making 24th-largest among all Ukrainian banks in this regard. In 2008, PJSC Bank Forum was acquired by Germany’s Commerzbank Group. 

Tasks

Information and computing resources of the bank needed to be consolidated to ensure its stable operation, fulfilment of long-term development plans, as well as centralisation and reorganisation of its chain.

Through this project, the management intended to optimise IT infrastructure: cut support and maintenance costs, simplify administration, and lay foundation for the overall further development of the bank.

Criteria

Under the project, SI BIS and technical specialists of PJSC Bank Forum deployed at the bank a new IBM Power 770 enterprise system supporting up to 64 Power7 cores.

After two candidate platforms were stress tested, a decision was made in favour of the IBM-based one. The bank’s specialists emphasised the following advantages of IBM Power 570 and IBM Power 770 deployment:

  • Deployment speed
  • Availability of the bank’s personnel and external specialists able to handle hardware installation and service support
  • Cost-effectiveness

The project had to be implemented within a relatively short period, so the possibility of testing the solution before deployment and evaluating all advantages of the new hardware was another advantage for the bank.

In addition, the bank’s IT infrastructure already included certain IBM hardware, therefore the deployment of IBM Power 770 simplified many integrations during consolidation of computing resources.

Solutions

IT Infrastructure Modernization

Products

IBM Power 770

Results

The IBM Power 770-based solution deployed by SI BIS experts enabled optimisation of the bank’s IT infrastructure, cuts in support and maintenance costs, simpler administration, and a solid foundation for the overall further development of the bank.

IT infrastructure audit and preliminary calculations showed that consolidation of information and computing resources was a viable move and showed the advantages thereof. Some main advantages are as follows:

  • No need for maintenance and support of the main and backup local core banking system servers
  • No need to administer almost the entire infrastructure related to local core banking system operation
  • Lower data loss risks
  • Lower acquisition and maintenance costs for software licences for bank branches.