Business & Finance
Business and Finance
Business and Finance
Thu, January 15, 2009
Wed, January 14, 2009 IBM: Kookmin Bank Selects IBM System z10 and DB2 to Build Next-Generation Core Banking Application System
SEOUL, KOREA--(Marketwire - January 14, 2009) - IBM (
Through the adoption of IBM System z10, Kookmin Bank will secure a world-class, customer service-oriented IT infrastructure and gain a footing to upgrade its financial operations based on cutting-edge technology. In addition, this also supports the Bank's strategy of innovating its data center operations and management by building a smarter IT environment that drives cost effectiveness and energy efficiency.
Before the contract was signed in December 2008, Kookmin Bank evaluated systems and technology from IBM and other vendors including Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and TmaxSoft. The bank also carried out benchmark tests (BMTs) for its core banking application and database management systems on IBM System z9 and Unix server for Multi Channel Interface (MCI) and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) application over a six-month period last year both in and outside of Korea. The BMTs were used to assess and verify core technology components and involved handling a large volume of online transactions to closely simulate the actual environment.
According to Kookmin Bank, it chose IBM technology to build its platform as it provides the best stability, usability, and security for the enhancement in customer service quality.
Kookmin Bank started the NGBS project in 2007. As the bank's service provider, IBM is currently developing the framework of the project and building a customer-centric, user-friendly application system. With a highly responsive and flexible IT infrastructure providing 24x7 availability, Kookmin Bank will be able to promptly respond to the changing financial environment. Other benefits include business continuity based on a seamless disaster recovery solution, minimum deployment and stronger monitoring, as well as improved support for the bank's global operations. In turn, the bank will be able to leverage new technology, devices and media to provide world-class services to its customers globally.
SukYoung Kang, Director, Financial Services Sector, IBM Korea, said, "IBM System z10 and DB2 is being regarded as the strategic platform for global integration worldwide. Our Open Infrastructure Offering (OIO) contract with Kookmin Bank reaffirms its trust in IBM's mainframe for mission-critical work. IBM will provide all of its business and technology values for the successful implementation of Kookmin Bank's next-generation core banking application system."
About Kookmin Bank
Kookmin Bank is one of the top leading banks in Asia. As of the end of June 2008, Kookmin Bank had KRW258 trillion in total assets, 26 million active clients, and 1,218 branches. Kookmin Bank was also the first in the world to introduce mobile banking. For more details, visit [ http://www.kbstar.com/ ].
About IBM System z10
The adoption of IBM mainframes, which power the top 50 banks worldwide and 22 of the top 25 US retailers, has enabled IBM's System z to nearly double its share this decade, according to IDC's high-end server quarterly tracker. Over the same timeframe, HP and Sun have lost its share.(1) Examples of the clients in Financial Services Sector that have adopted IBM mainframes include: [ Industrial Bank of Korea ], [ Itau Bank ] (Brazil), [ Postbank AG ] (Germany), [ Finanz Informatik ] (Germany), [ RHB Banking Group ] (Malaysia), and [ Allied Irish Bank ]. For more information on the facts about IBM's System z mainframe, visit [ IBM's Get the Facts ] website.
About IBM's Project Big Green
In May 2007, IBM launched Project Big Green to help clients around the world improve the efficiency of IT and better optimize their data center resources. IBM invested US$1 billion to increase the efficiency of IBM products to help data centers reduce energy consumption, demonstrating its energy efficiency by consolidating up to 3,900 computer servers onto about 30 System z servers running Linux operating system and virtualization technology. In the past year, IBM has engaged with more than 2,000 clients, delivering a variety of hardware, software and services technologies to help businesses reduce data center energy consumption and cut energy costs by more than 40 percent. For more information, please visit [ www.ibm.com/green ].
About IBM
For more information about IBM, visit [ www.ibm.com/kr ]
Note
(1) According to IDC's high-end +$250K servers quarterly tracker results from 3Q 2000 to 2Q 2008. IDC 2Q08 WW Server Tracker.
