Korea's Kookmin Bank has selected IBM System z10 mainframe technology and DB2 servers as the foundation for a next-generation core banking application platform designed to consolidate all of the bank's different business units across the world.
The contract was signed in December 2008, following a strenuous competitive tender involving systems and technology from IBM and other vendors including Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and TmaxSoft.
The bank also carried out benchmark tests (BMTs) for its core banking application and database management systems on IBM System z9 and Unix server for Multi Channel Interface (MCI) and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) application over a six-month period last year both in and outside of Korea. The BMTs were used to assess and verify core technology components and involved handling a large volume of online transactions to closely simulate the actual environment.
Kookmin Bank started the NGBS project in 2007. As the bank's service provider, IBM is currently developing the framework of the project, which will entail improved disaster recovery minimum deployment and stronger monitoring, as well as the deployment of new techniques for greening the bank's data centre operations.