Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

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Reconstruction of the corporate Internet banking service was undertaken using a combination of PRIMERGY Servers, the Linux operating system and Oracle RAC. Construction was in cooperation with the Japan Research Institute, Ltd. The resulting system is flexible, scalable, and able to handle the rapid increases in service users.

Highly reliable bank infrastructure construction was the requirement. PRIMERGY industry standard Servers, Linux + Oracle RAC provided the answer

The Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) is one of Japan’s three big mega-banks. It provides corporate electronic banking (EB) services, including direct deposits, etc. over the Internet. The service operates in close cooperation with its accounting systems. Convenience and strong security that enhances service content are high requirements, while the number of users is rapidly increasing.
To cope with the rapid increase in users, the bank introduced PRIMERGY blade servers in a cluster-configuration with Oracle RAC. This was able to reinforce the system’s ability to grow flexibly and quickly. Using blades for the WEB server made expansion easy while high reliability was ensured by the construction of multiple parallel DB servers in a cluster configuration with ETERNUS storage.

Corporate Internet banking is seen as a strong and growing strategy in SMBC’s positioning of e-commerce.

SMBC is driving a ‘revolution’ in its banking services using e-commerce as its business information delivery strategy. As part of that strategy, the bank is working towards the expansion of its customer base by providing convenient services like flexible corporate internet banking. Aimed at its commercial customers, it has become one of the core products of the bank.
The system lets corporate customers use Electronic Banking (EB) over the internet, providing services like account enquiry, funds transfer, consolidated transfers and salary payments in cooperation with its accounting systems. The system is different from conventional models of EB service, which typically use proprietary software installed onto specific PCs. SMBC’s system does not require such exclusive software, allowing greater flexibility of use at multiple locations. It also enables the provision of the latest financial-related information as regularly is possible.
128bit SSL encoded transmission; electronic certification, IC cards, plus ID/password protection, provide the highest levels of security and individual verification. In addition, detailed authority settings for every user enable or disable important functions. For example, with payment transfers it is necessary to have the approval of two individuals before payment execution occurs. These levels of security and the access convenience have been well received and led to a rapid increase in the number of users.

The Introduction process

With the rapid increases in users, superior scalability was required to enhance the system’s speed, flexibility and growth.

The service was initiated in April 2003. Since then it has expanded rapidly to the present 6 million companies in the corporate base. Growth is expected to continue well into the future.
Initially based on UNIX infrastructure, work loads increased 3-4 times in just 18 months, with further rapid increases expected to continue. In addition, as the service’s work load is concentrated on company pay days and settlement days, a scalable reconstruction of the system was necessary.
Predictions of future rapid growth also indicated the construction of a system with several times the capability of the initial implementation. With this being an investment risk the biggest challenge was to find a system which could expand, ensure the required flexibility, and match speed to service growth.
To meet these challenges, an Oracle server based on clustered servers, (PRIMERGY Blades) was introduced to provide the ability to expand the necessary areas of the system flexibly and swiftly.
At that time, Mr. Shinji Yanagi, in charge of consolidated system infrastructure planning for corporate services, in the Information Systems Planning Department, recalls: “Although an evaluation period for the safe migration to the new system was very necessary, the peak business application volumes were breaking new records every month. The shift to the new system was carried out step by step with temporary reinforcements being made to the existing system to maintain service efficiency.”

System Outline

System highly reliability was provided by the construction of a cluster configuration using multiple parallel PRIMERGY blade servers for redundancy

In order to secure the high reliability of the infrastructure system, PRIMERGY industry standard servers - which come fully equipped with fault-resistant technology, such as dynamic restoration during system operation - were used. In fact, the servers, storage systems, and network equipment were configured redundantly. If any device fails service is not disrupted.
The front-end WEB servers consist of 20 blade servers with peak load equalization attained using a load balancing device. This is constructed in a simple and practical way, so that if a fault occurs, the faulty server can be separated automatically to assure uninterrupted service.
For the database, 4 units of high-end PRIMERGY servers were combined with Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and Oracle RAC. The cluster configuration is arranged so that even if 1 unit becomes faulty, the remaining 3 units can continue processing without service disruption.

For system expansion, a scale-out method was chosen. As user numbers increase additional processing capability can be added just by adding similar servers. This also has the advantage of requiring no changes in software.

The previous 6 disk arrays of the certification servers and business servers were consolidated onto 2 ETERNUS6000 Model 600 storage devices. This enabled the introduction of a SAN and unified storage management.

“Although it is the first time that PRIMERGY Servers＋Linux and Oracle RAC have been adopted for the bank’s infrastructure system, it is a most suitable system for solving this service’s problems, while assuring reliability, flexibility and scalability.” (Mr. Yanagi)

Future Expectations

Improve online system maintenance (patch management, applications etc.) through the introduction of system management software

As server numbers increase through load balancing and scale-out configuration, it creates a larger burden on system operations for software upgrades, etc. Without the introduction of system management software, patch applications etc. cannot be easily carried out.
In order to reduce this burden, the introduction of system management software (Systemwalker Resource Coordinator) to promote efficiency, online patch application and ease other management tasks, is likely to be essential in the future.

User Profile
Company Name: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
Location: Tokyo Chiyoda-ku Yuraku-cho 1-1-2
Representative: President Oku Masayuki
Capital: 665 billion yen (As of September 2005)
Employees: 21,290 employees (As of September 2005)
Business Profile: Banking Business
Deposit taking, lending, securities brokering and trading, securities investment, money transfer, foreign currency exchange, corporate bond trustee services and custody services, financial futures underwriting, investment trust sales and other commercial banking activities.
URL: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

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