The Virtual Bank Vault
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- Europe
Country
- Spain
Product
- IBM Global Technology Services
- IBM servers
Tech Stack
- Virtualization
- Cloud-based delivery model
- Data analytics
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Data Mining
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Kutxabank is a Spanish bank that was involved in a four-way consolidation among rival financial institutions in Spain’s Basque region three years ago. The new holding company needed to integrate IT for all four banks (BBK, Kutxa, CajaSur and Caja Vital), rationalize datacenters, and enable mobility, all while ensuring no data loss and no downtime for core systems. The bank’s 8,000 workstations and 2,000 ATMs needed to be integrated with no disruption to the 6,500 employees or 2.8 million customers—most of whom are retail customers, with the others running small and medium-sized businesses. And all the bank’s technology had to be geared to a data-dependent future.
The Challenge
Kutxabank, a Spanish bank, faced a significant challenge after a four-way consolidation among rival financial institutions. The bank needed to integrate IT for all four banks, rationalize datacenters, and enable mobility, all while ensuring no data loss and no downtime for core systems. This integration included the core systems as well as the technology that touched customers and employees. The bank’s 8,000 workstations and 2,000 ATMs needed to be integrated with no disruption to the 6,500 employees or 2.8 million customers. Furthermore, all the bank’s technology had to be geared to a data-dependent future.
The Solution
Kutxabank decided to embrace virtualization to build resilience into every transaction. The bank signed a 10½-year, end-to-end contract with IBM Global Technology Services. IBM developed a virtualized infrastructure deploying IBM servers at Kutxabank’s datacenters. Virtualization allowed the bank to convert workstations all at once over a single weekend, enabling employees to stay connected via mobile devices and improve resiliency at bank branches. All of the workstations and devices are now run as thin clients, with all data backed up at the bank’s datacenters, which are managed by IBM. The bank also maintains two primary datacenters and a third datacenter for recovery purposes.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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