Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the completion of KEB's mainframe migration to IBM System z10 which will enable the bank's credit card business (KEB Card) to create an advanced and smarter IT environment to improve efficiency and customer service.
Under the agreement signed in October 2008, IBM provided KEB Card with three units of the System z10 Enterprise Class (EC), the most advanced IBM System z mainframe with the equivalent capacity of nearly 1,500 x86 servers, with an 85% smaller footprint, up to 85% lower energy costs.
IBM utilized the mainframe's Parallel Sysplex technology and successfully implemented the system migration from System z990 without interrupting KEB Card's business. With the IBM System z10, KEB Card now provides guaranteed stability in its main computer operations and the capacity needed to quickly respond to the rapidly changing financial environment. The new system also supports KEB Card's business growth as System z10 offers performance that is three times faster than the former z990 and ensures two times more capacity.
Through the integrated service of IBM, KEB Card has optimized its main computer operations and cut down the total cost of ownership (TCO) resulting from a reduction in operation and maintenance costs per million instructions per second (MIPS). In addition, KEB Card has secured the foundation to improve its main computer and data center performance and substantially improved the online batch processing time, by employing the latest 4.4GHz System z10 technology.
"We have secured an essentially required computing capacity through the successful System z10 migration through our partnership with IBM Korea," said Young Kim, Director of IT Operations, KEB. "We were also able to minimize TCO by further improving system stability, efficiency, and availability in a smarter way. It is anticipated that we will be able to innovate various customer services based on the outstanding performance of the IBM System z10."
SukYoung Kang, Director, Financial Services Sector, IBM Korea, said, "The System z10 automates the management and tracking of IT resources that is required to quickly respond to the continuously changing business environment while also ensuring top-level security.
Kang added, "I am pleased that IBM was able to create greater value for KEB from the IBM System z10 system, which has been regarded as the strategic IT platform for the world's top companies and continues to gain momentum for its long term economic value."