Euroclear consolidates some 30 Unix servers and migrates from the
mainframe to the latest technologies
- An infrastructure that had
reached its limits
For some years, Euroclear SA/NV had been introducing Unix platforms into
its global architecture. All told, about 100
systems were spread across Euroclear’s three sites and across the various
production, acceptance, test and development environments (in-house
applications, IBM Domino Notes, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, etc.). Some of its systems are implemented on the basis of high availability, and most of them are connected to centralised storage and backup units.
In the
mainframe environment that forms the core of Euroclear’s infrastructure, the
three IBM zSeries z990 systems were on the verge of reaching their
technological limits in terms of number of partitions, entry/exit performance
and profitable growth.
This is
why Euroclear embarked on a programme of standardisation and rationalisation
resulting in consolidation for the Unix environment.
Working
with I.R.I.S.’s technical teams, Euroclear opted for a partitioning solution
using some 30 IBM System p5-570 servers shared between the three data centres. In the mainframe environment, a total cost of ownership (TCO) study gave
rise to a phased migration to new IBM System z9 technologies.
Euroclear
opted for new IBM packages using Unix servers because of the partitioning
opportunities. In this way Euroclear can achieve a
greater utilisation rate of present physical resources, increase flexibility by
the dynamic reallocation of resources and accelerate the study, deployment and
implementation of new applications.
It is
also possible to standardise the stock of systems and therefore the management
processes, drastically reducing floor space and thus environmental costs. For the mainframe environment, the phased migration (use of different
systems in parallel) to new technologies makes it possible to test and validate
existing applications on new hardware, validate versions of the operating
system, develop and validate new extensions and validate and approve new
versions of applications.
Gamal
Khaldi, General Manager of I.R.I.S. ICT: “Euroclear has been an I.R.I.S. client for several years for its Unix
platforms and we are very proud of this relationship, which has grown from year
to year. Since the takeover of Jeeves, our
relationship has expanded towards the mainframe part. Together with the
client, our teams design the architecture of the specific systems such as backup
and high availability.
A number of I.R.I.S.
employees assist Euroclear in the day-to-day management of systems. By using I.R.I.S.'s best abilities at the best time, Euroclear can
optimise its total cost of ownership (TCO).”
Etienne
Van de Kerckhove, CEO of I.R.I.S. Group: “We aim to provide our clients with the highest level of expertise in
IT infrastructure. We support large document projects, of
course. But our subsidiary I.R.I.S. ICT has become
a global IT architect that can provide the most demanding clients with the best
products and most sophisticated services, on mainframe, Unix and WinTel
platforms and on all storage platforms. It is a source of
great pride to count among our clients Dexia, Euroclear, Umicore, Toyota and Fortis, who
have put their trust in us for years.”
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