SunTrust has been an ACI BASE24 customer for more than 25 years running on HP NonStopTM servers, interfacing to IBM System zTM host applications. SunTrust wanted to simplify network configuration by eliminating the separate SNI (SNA Network Interconnection) network; bring the ATM transaction traffic into its primary TCPIP network; and improve network throughput, availability and reliability; while avoiding costly impacts to host applications.

In conjunction with a server upgrade from HP NonStop K-Series to HP Integrity servers, the bank deployed ACI Communication Services for Advanced Networking - HPR/IP (High Performance Routing/IP) to achieve this goal. The benefits to SunTrust exceeded expectations both in terms of transaction response times and increased flexibility for high availability and disaster recovery.

James Bone, SunTrust V.P. of EDS ATM Development, said, "Having worked with ACI for a number of years, and also having run previous similar projects, it was the obvious choice for us to come to ACI for help with this. The consolidation of servers and increased transaction volumes within the enterprise required highly-available, extremely fast connectivity. With ACI's HPR/IP solution and IBM's System z Enterprise Extender we exceeded throughput requirements while reducing both response time and demand on system resources. In addition, with ACI's HPR/IP solution, we eliminated the IBM 3745 Communications Controller with no application code changes."

Ralph Dangelmaier, president, global markets and services at ACI Worldwide said, "Connectivity and communications within payments systems are as essential as the hardware and software the institution chooses, and all too often that connectivity can become the weakest link in the chain. SunTrust invested in the latest, best-of-breed connectivity for its payments solution. The bank has been a long-standing customer of ACI and we were delighted to work with the team to support this project"