Case Studies

Evaluation the design principles involved in running Red Hat OpenShift on the Microsoft Azure Cloud with IBM Sterling B2Bi and IBM Sterling File Gateway.

Client context

The client is one of the largest financial services group and one of the largest in the Nordic region, with over 1.7 million internet banking users, including approximately 76,000 corporate customers.

They offer a full range of financial services, including loans, savings, advisory services, insurance, and pension products for retail and corporate customers.​

Customer challenges

• The bank’s large customer base requires a complex solution in processing files and identification of SSH/SSL connection details.
• The platform is ‘critical infrastructure’ and therefore has high reliability / availability requirements. Any extended outage has high impact to the business, customers and could trigger regulatory investigation and / or fines. Maintaining the highest level of security is also essential in order for compliance within the financial arena.
• As Microsoft Azure is a key technology provider, it was essential to integrate into the Microsoft Azure Cloud technology delivery processes already mapped out within the bank.

Solution

This was a 6 month project, with implementation and delivery lead by SABREX with further technical collaboration from Red Hat Norway.

The solution involved finding a technical approach to shift the bank’s existing non-container based IBM Sterling application suite onto the Microsoft Azure Cloud with Red Hat OpenShift. The SABREX consultants’ deep technical understanding of how IBM Sterling operates on-premises was essential in order for the bank to apply new container-based principles.

Value

Red Hat OpenShift provided the bank with the ability to scale on-demand and enable the self-healing of as little as 1 or as much as 101 containers running IBM Sterling integration software. Modernising their platforms to the latest technologies also offered access to new capabilities such as Auto Scaling and Self-Healing, and optimising their CICD pipelines. This enabled the bank to compete by providing flexibility and agility over the way they operate.

OpenSource solutions typically offer enterprises the equivalent or superior capabilities as other solutions yet are much more inexpensive. They also give enterprises the ability to start small and scale, making it a cost-effective solution.

Context

The client is a large banking organisation; one of Europe’s biggest banks and one of the traditional ‘Big Four’ Irish banks. It offers private, retail, corporate and business banking services.

Customer challenges

Balancing spend on upgrading software with the level of risk it poses is a common dilemma for many organisations. However, the problems associated with using legacy software are more wide-ranging than many organisations expect.

The customer had been affected by many of the problems associated with using obsolete and unsupported software, such as inability to ensure continuity of service to customers and rising maintenance costs. In addition, as some software had not been upgraded for many years, it lacked the capacity to support interactions with partners using up-to-date security protocols. As the customer worked with over 20,000 partners, this highlighted the fact that their current system was likely to experience more problems with partner interaction as their software continued to date.

Solution

One of the problems with unsupported software is that the longer it remains in use, the more challenging it is to perform upgrades. Speed of performing the upgrade was also critical as the bank were currently needing to onboard between 30-50 partners per day.

SABREX consultants were able complete the upgrade overnight through pre-configuration, vastly minimising the impact on the bank and its customers. Also, by migrating partners prior to (the event / going live?) all partners were migrated by the completion of the upgrade.

Value

In addition to improving the banks own security in file transfers, the bank were able to interact with partners who used more advanced security protocols. The upgrade also increased the bank’s capacity for onboarding partners and drastically reduced time spent on maintenance. 

The client

As one of the largest banks in the Nordics, with operations in Europe and the Americas, the client has over 1.7 million Internet banking users, of which approximately 76,000 are corporate customers.

The challenge

The bank was experiencing platform performance issues. As a large percentage of its business is conducted through digital channels, any extended outage would have a serious impact both on the business and its customers. Outages can also trigger regulatory fines and become a financial burden if they are more than infrequent.

The bank’s large customer base also made moving data inside and outside of the organisation and processing files a highly complex procedure, posing threats to data security.

Solution

SABREX performed an on-site 10-day Health Check Assessment.

The in-depth analysis revealed a common problem in enterprise IT; the business’ requirements had evolved over time but the environment was still set up to meet the business needs at the time when the system was deployed. The Health Check also identified potential security threats before these jeopardised data or triggered regulatory fines.

SABREX held a client workshop to discuss the pros and cons of different technical approaches to meeting the bank’s business requirements.
This included providing use cases on IBM Sterling Secure Proxy for consideration.

SABREX have found the product to be a successful solution to complex file processing in their experience with other large banks. Holding the workshop enables clients to make an informed decision which is right for their business and ensures the client’s IT investment meets their expectations.

After obtaining consensus, SABREX consultants worked closely with the customer team to plan the upgrade of applications and related components.

As well as supporting the customer team throughout the upgrade and conducting performance testing, SABREX handled the migration of the client’s partners and supervised the go-live. As a result, the entire process went smoothly with minimal disruption to business as usual.

Value

The customer’s highest priority was avoiding detrimental outages which SABREX achieved; our intervention made the infrastructure more resilient and capable of meeting its high availability requirements.

In addition to removing threats to security and compliance, the software upgrades undertaken improved the experience for end-users, as the product now functioned at the standard of modern business requirements.

Implementing IBM Sterling Secure Proxy meant that the bank was now able to meet new high-speed protocols for data transfer, reduce data vulnerability and meet security and compliance regulations at industry best practice standards.