Case Study
China Merchants Bank
A top-ranking commercial bank achieves CONTINUOUS APPLICATION AVAILABILITY with Stratus® ftServer® systems
Established in 1987 in Shenzhen, China Merchants Bank (CMB) is China’s first joint-stock commercial bank and a pioneer in promoting Chinese banking industry reform. Over the past 24 years, CMB has grown from a small bank with a net capital of 100 million yuan, one branch, and 30 employees to a nationwide commercial bank with a net capital of 140 billion yuan, total assets of 2.6 trillion yuan, over 800 branches, and more than 50,000 employees. Now ranked among the world’s top 100 banks, CMB has earned its position as the most influential commercial bank brand in China through continuous financial innovation, quality customer service, prudent management and strong business performance.
The Challenge
CMB offers a wide range of personal and corporate financial services, including Internet and mobile banking, loans, multi-function debit cards, dual-currency credit cards, and wealth management, to a diverse customer base. As it continues to grow and expand, CMB strives to deliver exceptional customer service while rigorously managing its operating costs to drive profitability.
With customers demanding around-the-clock access to secure, real-time financial transactions across multiple delivery channels, even the briefest period of unplanned system downtime could negatively affect thousands of customers, damage CMB’s reputation and result in potential revenue losses. CMB decided to establish its server infrastructure with state-of-the-art, fault-tolerant servers in order to achieve continuous availability of its virtualized core banking applications.
“CMB has built its reputation on providing secure, reliable banking transactions to customers without compromise. Stratus ftServer systems were the only platform that could provide proven maximum availability for high-volume transactions and multi-channel financial services delivery at a low total cost of ownership.”
Mr. Linli
IT Department of head office China Merchants Bank
The Solution
After an in-depth evaluation process, CMB selected Stratus ftServer systems instead of IBM or HP servers to create an open systems architecture that enables greater ease of use, lower maintenance costs, and continuous availability. The bank purchased Stratus ftServer 6400 systems—all of which run RedHat® Enterprise Linux®, Oracle RAC, and VMware vSphere® virtualization software. Some of the ftServer systems are installed in CMB’s primary data center in Shanghai and the others are located at a disaster recovery site in Shenzhen to support the bank’s business continuity plan that.
The ftServer 6400 systems prevent downtime and data loss for transaction-intensive applications while eliminating the costs and complexity involved in deploying and managing alternative high-availability solutions. The fault-tolerant ftServer architecture eliminates single points of failure—which is especially important in virtualized environments—and addresses the hardware, software and serviceability issues that can interrupt system operations and lead to critical data loss or corruption.
Advanced lockstep technology, automated monitoring and proactive management and service combine to provide an always-on solution that delivers unmatched availability and low TCO. The ftServer system’s duplex hardware components process the same instructions at precisely the same time. If a component fails, its partner simply continues normal operations—without downtime or data loss. The Automated Uptime Software Layer™ monitors more than 500 system components and sensors to identify, handle and report faults before they impact system operations. In the event that a component fails, the ftServer system’s hot-swappable customer replaceable units are automatically ordered and easily installed while applications continue to run without interruption.
“Since deploying our virtualized banking applications on ftServer systems, CMB has experienced zero downtime. Continuous system availability enables us to meet customer expectations for service, quality, and reliability while protecting against revenue losses.”
Mr. Linli
IT Department of head office China Merchants Bank
The Results
Since installing its ftServer systems in May 2014, CMB has experienced zero downtime of its core banking applications, successfully processing customer financial transactions through its multiple delivery channels 24/7/365. Delivering continuous availability in a cost-effective, easy-to-maintain platform, ftServer systems have enabled the bank to:
- Protect financial transaction processing applications with an always-on operating environment
- Detect potential problems and proactively take action before downtime becomes an issue
- Avoid revenue losses due to banking and trading system interruptions
- Uphold its strong reputation and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction
- Meet China Banking Regulatory Commission (CRBC) standards for system availability
In addition, the fully scalable ftServer platform will easily accommodate CMB’s anticipated network and transaction growth to provide high performance and continuous availability into the future.
About Stratus Technologies
Stratus Technologies’ solutions enable rapid deployment of always-on infrastructures, from enterprise servers to clouds, without any changes to your applications. Stratus products (software and servers) combined with Stratus people, enable customers to prevent downtime before it occurs, enabling uninterrupted 24/7/365 performance of essential business operations.
To learn more, visit www.stratus.com.
