[3151] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
IBM: Bank of Montreal Counts on Network Computing with OS/2 Warp
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Timothy Sipples)
Wed Jul 9 05:37:30 1997
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 29 Jun 1997 00:06:00 -0400
From: tsipple@us.ibm.com (Timothy Sipples)
Reply-To: tsipple@us.ibm.com (Timothy Sipples)
Reply-to: tsipple@us.ibm.com (Timothy Sipples)
[Followups directed to comp.os.os2.misc]
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Many individuals and companies around the world count on OS/2 Warp to handle
the most critical computing tasks at the lowest possible cost. This story
describes how the Bank of Montreal delivers reliable banking to thousands of
employees in Canada.
For more information, please visit http://www.software.ibm.com/os/warp/warpfm
on the Internet.
**************************************************************************
Bank of Montreal: Ahead of the Trend with an OS/2 Solution
Cost of ownership is a growing topic of concern for any business with a
significant investment in personal computers. With the trend towards network
computing, new buzz words such as zero administration, thin clients, or
no-cost computing abound. And terms like centralized management are suddenly
back in style.
For the Bank of Montreal, managing systems centrally never went out of style.
From its initial design, with no software resident on the workstations, the
branch information technology (IT) solution embodied network computing
concepts. The hard drive contains no user data, no applications, not even the
operating system -- only a few files necessary to maintain good performance,
e.g. the swap file.
"It's important to have no data or only transient data on the workstation so
management never has to worry about critical data getting lost or being
destroyed inadvertently," says Bank of Montreal's senior technical specialist,
Bill Peel. "You also don't have to manage that data. Managing code and data
consumes a major portion of PC support resource. IT organizations can
considerably lower costs by reducing the amount of data at its end points."
That was the overall objective for the Bank of Montreal, which is working to
install 14000 workstations in 1200 branches across Canada. By keeping data
off the workstation and on only the servers, the bank can effectively reduce
its management costs by a factor of five.
The Bank of Montreal configuration also simplifies software distribution.
IBM's NetView Distribution Manager only needs to distribute new or upgraded
software to the OS/2 LAN Servers located in the branches rather than to all
14000 workstations.
OS/2 Warp offers features to completely control the end user environment. A
restricted Workplace Shell function prevents end users from changing the look
of the desktop by rearranging, adding or deleting icons. This also prohibits
users from getting to the DOS or OS/2 prompt while still having access to word
processing and mission critical banking applications.
Gartner Group cost of ownership studies indicate situations where users
maintain applications and control the data on their workstations can require
one support person for every 40 to 50 users. In the branch environments, Bank
of Montreal is seeing a 250 to one user/support ratio.
Reduced costs would be meaningless if the system was not available when it was
needed. Bank of Montreal's centrally managed system provides service levels
exceeding 99.5% end point availability.
Bank of Montreal has chosen an OS/2 solution for its mission critical
applications. "The branch is the bread and butter of the bank," said Bill
Peel. "We need extremely high availability there."
The reduced importance of the workstation allows the bank to concentrate its
high availability efforts at the server. "We provided high availability on
our servers by adding RAID 5 controllers to create fault tolerance." Mr. Peel
noted, "Each Bank of Montreal branch has three one gigabyte drives, any one of
which can fail without disrupting service."
Automating its mission critical functions has proved to be a key competitive
advantage. The OS/2 infrastructure and FootPrint applications enables the
Bank of Montreal to process a customer loan in only one visit. Banks that
depend on a paper based system may have customers returning to a branch
several times before obtaining a loan.
The automation also allows Bank of Montreal to cross sell many of its
services; thereby building customer relationships by satisfying a number of
needs in a short time.
The Bank of Montreal continues to look at ways to reduce costs. By moving
servers up the "food chain" the bank can further lower support expenses. This
however, would require a lot of bandwidth throughout a metropolitan area. Mr.
Peel thinks, "The technology is quickly moving to make this more feasible."
He also feels, "The bank has moved as far as the technology allows." IBM's
latest technology code-named Bluebird may be the next step for the Bank of
Montreal. Bluebird is an x86-based operating system that resides on a server
and uses Remote IPL technology to distribute applications and data to a
variety of client systems including standard PCs, "managed" PCs and thin
clients.
Also in pursuit of the network computing benefits that help expand
opportunities, the bank is investigating Java applications to complement its
telephone banking environment with Internet access.
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