Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG ramps up networking security without breaking the bank
As for most financial services companies, security is key and, due to the increased digitalization, a growing priority for Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG.
About the customer
Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG, is a Swiss bank providing lending and other general banking services through its 13 branch offices in the Aargau district. With close to 150 years in business the bank is strongly anchored in the region. To become an attractive financial partner for clients outside the region, the bank is today also increasingly focused on
digitizing their business.
Industry: Enterprise Data Center Interconnect
Location: Switzerland
Solution: Open line system
The challenge
Security a top priority for financial institutions
As for most financial services companies, security is key and, due to the increased digitalization, a growing priority for Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG. Keeping financial data safe and secure is also a requirement emphasized by the Basel III regulations, the global framework for regulation, supervision and risk management of the financial sector.
Against this background the bank’s networking department reviewed their data center infrastructure. Sascha Kaufmann, lead system engineer with Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG for the project, explains: “To meet the increased need for storage and full data replication between our different locations, the fiber connectivity between the sites needed to be expanded, in terms of bandwidth and number of channels. The networking solution also needed to be improved to support full data encryption, for more secure data transfer between the data centers.”
“The Smartoptics solution gives us the flexibility and scalability we need, at the lowest possible cost. But more importantly, the resilient, robust network allows us to meet the demands of both Basel III and our clients for safe and secure handling of all our financial data.”
The Solution
Wanted: reliable and secure data center networking
In January 2016, the bank turned to the market to find a solution partner that could help them address their growing networking needs. Their search led them to BNC, Business Network Communications AG, a Swiss-based IT company specializing in enterprise mobile access and data center infrastructure solutions. Along with BNC came the proposal to rebuild the bank’s data center network with the help of embedded WDM solutions from Smartoptics.
Markus Huber, CEO of BNC, says, “For BNC, partnering with strong solution providers is a must to secure customer satisfaction. Together with Smartoptics, we were able to meet the complete networking and security needs of Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG and provide a solution that is stable, reliable and offers an ideal platform for further network expansion when needed.”
Kaufmann explains how the solution’s flexibility was a key decision point. “We couldn’t be happier with our decision to go with Smartoptics for our WDM project. The platform is easy to maintain, very stable, and comes at a very competitive price which makes it the perfect fit for us.”
the Result
A resilient multi-rate service network secures financial data
Today Hypothekarbank Lenzburg’s two main sites are linked through an embedded WDM network, securing data center connectivity and encryption between the sites. The Smartoptics solution, combining embedded transceivers and transponders, is fully approved by Brocade as the main provider of the bank’s fiber switches. The multi-rate service network allows the bank to run all services, whether Ethernet or Fibre channel, 1G, 10G or 16G services, over the same optical fiber infrastructure in a cost-efficient manner.
By making sure that both sites have a direct connection to a mirrored set-up at the other site, the solution not only supports data replication between the sites but also provides a fully resilient connection. If one of the connections between the two main sites fails, the other one provides a back-up.
And if Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG needs to increase their networking capacity or support additional services, the solution can easily be expanded just by adding more channels in the multiplexer. Always with zero downtime and with no impact whatsoever on the network operation.
“The Smartoptics solution gives us the flexibility and scalability we need, at the lowest possible cost. But more importantly, the resilient, robust network allows us to meet the demands of both Basel III and our clients for safe and secure handling of all our financial data,” Kaufmann concludes.
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