Barclays has confirmed that a storage disc array fault at its Gloucester data centre caused its ATMs and online and telephone banking systems to crash yesterday.The hardware failure left customers unable to withdraw cash at about 1500 ATMs in the South of England between around 1:00pm and 4:30 pm.
Online and phone bankers in the South were also unable to conduct transactions, while a small number of customers experienced difficulty using their cards to make payments in shops.
A Barclays spokesperson confirmed the problem was caused by a disc array failure at the Gloucester facility but refused to elaborate on the technology involved, saying only that an investigation is underway.
However, the bank does use Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) storage disc arrays at the Gloucester centre after striking a deal with the vendor last year.
It selected an HDS USP V-based SAN subsystem to provide storage for its Unix and mainframe systems and an AMS array with a NetApp NAS head to provide storage for Windows files. The technology was due to come online in February.
Barclays, which has around 15 million UK customers, has apologised for the inconvenience the outage caused. But one disgruntled user contacted the BBC to vent his anger after his card was rejected as he was trying to buy a Ferrari.
This is not the first time Barclays has suffered technical problems. Back in 2005 a technical glitch left millions of customers unable to withdraw cash from ATMs or use telephone and Internet banking services over the Easter holiday weekend.
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