Italian banking group Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) is using high-speed optical networking technology from Cisco Systems to improve interconnectivity and underpin business continuity between regional data centres.
MPS is working with IBM to consolidate and interconnect storage resources at its two regional data centres in Italy using Cisco’s Business Ready Data Centre framework.
The storage area networks at both centres, situated 90 km from each other, are being connected via DWDM technology (Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing) based on the Cisco ONS 15540 network platform for optical services. This supports the transport of voice, video, data as well as storage traffic between locations and helps minimise delays when replicating information between the centre's two IBM OS/390 mainframe and open systems environments.
The new network is being implemented in support of an overall data centralisation project to improve information integrity and reduce the need for manual procedures to verify data security.