Case study The Hokuriku Bank, Ltd.

Case study The Hokuriku Bank, Ltd.

»Although we moved 10 years ago to store data on shared servers rather than PCs, there was still much room for improved efficiency and enhanced security. We were determined to streamline operations in all branches and to help the environment.« Mr. Y, Director, Administration Department, The Hokuriku Bank, Ltd.

The customer Hokuriku Bank offers a broad range of banking and other financial services and operates an extensive network of 188 branches and agencies. The Hokuriku region is on the west coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu and the thriving city of Toyama lies between the sea and the spectacular Tateyama mountain range. Hokuriku Bank feels a deep responsibility to further promote the many local initiatives aimed at protecting this unique environment. The bank has already installed solar power-generation panels on the roof if its head office, switched to hybrid vehicles in its sales fleet and has replaced the lighting in all branches with efficient LED globes. However, management knew that there was an opportunity to make an even bigger impact in energy conservation with an ICT system overhaul. The customer Country: Japan The challenge Industry: Financial Services Following internal reviews, Hokuriku Bank discovered that the Founded: 1943 computing power of its servers and PCs was not appropriately Employees: 2,791 (at end Sept. 2010) distributed among the branches. Some had considerable surplus Website: http://www.hokugin.co.jp/ capacity while others struggled during times of peak load. The bank was also conscious of growing electricity use and the need to cut The challenge energy consumption wherever possible. A new energy conservation law As one of Japan’s leading regional banks, and a key player in the in Japan mandated annual reductions in energy usage of 1%, with a local community, Hokuriku Bank faced multiple challenges when 5% reduction over 5 years. As a responsible corporate citizen and a replacing its aging internal ICT systems. There was a need for better leader in the local community, Hokuriku Bank wanted to make a much management of computing resources, the replacement of hardware larger contribution than this minimal target. It also wanted to help and a significant upgrade of applications used by staff. Among the boost regional development by implementing new internal systems major aims of the system overhaul were boosting efficiency, and improving efficiency for staff and customers alike. trimming costs and enhancing customer service levels.The bank also wanted to make a positive contribution to the environment. The solution The solution that Fujitsu implemented for the bank involved the The solution removal of individual servers from all branches. This saved a massive Fujitsu’s solution for Hokuriku Bank replaced the many servers amount of energy, space and inefficient maintenance effort. PRIMERGY located in each branch with centralized blade servers and storage blade servers and ETERNUS storage systems were installed in a secure systems housed in an efficient data center. Virtual PC environments data center and managed centrally. Staff and managers in the various are now created centrally and made available to the branch staff offices and branches now use their PCs and laptops to access and save who require them. These employees have a range of enhanced the required information via their virtual PC environments – which are applications to choose from and can easily access the data required also managed centrally. At the same time, the outdated applications for their specific job. Security has also been strengthened thanks to used by the bank were replaced with the latest versions of more authentication via a unified ID management server. efficient office tools, thereby enhancing productivity.

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The benefit Products and services

■ Annual CO2 emissions were cut by 119 tons, or 40%, thanks to a ■ PRIMERGY BX620 Blade Servers range of factors involved in the streamlined ICT system now in ■ ETERNUS Storage Systems place throughout the bank. ■ Fujitsu Green ICT desktop and laptop computers ■ Data backups are handled online using the storage system rather ■ VMware View Client than locally using Magneto-Optical (MO) disks, thereby saving ■ Pmaid ID Master (system authentication solution) materials, time and the cost of transporting materials. ■ Staff in the branches and sales offices have efficient new applications to use as well as desktop equipment chosen from Fujitsu’s environmentally friendly Green ICT range.

The benefit Conclusion Hokuriku Bank was able to demonstrate an enormous 40% reduction By building a solution that spanned the bank’s entire scope of in its annual CO2 emissions, which is encouraging from both a financial operations, Fujitsu was able to maximize the effectiveness in many viewpoint and an environmentally responsible stance. The majority of ways. Eliminating such an enormous number of physical servers from this saving is derived from a much smaller space requirement for ICT all the branches freed up much wasted space, greatly cut power equipment, with all servers now consolidated efficiently in the data consumption and saved a lot of inefficient maintenance work. Just as center. There were also sizeable contributions from reduced office importantly, business operations could run more smoothly because space requirements and a decline in energy consumption by the ICT there were no longer crippling load imbalances across the various and networking equipment. servers in the bank’s network. Centralizing the infrastructure and systems administration tasks in a professionally managed data centre One relatively minor benefit with far-reaching implications is the way generated significant operational benefits and environmental that data backups are now handled in the branches and offices. Direct improvements. backups to the ETERNUS storage systems via the network have the following advantages compared with MO disk media: “Our main aims were obviously to enhance efficiency and reduce costs. ■ No need to purchase and consume the MO disks However, we could not miss this excellent opportunity to significantly ■ No need to transport the MO disks initially and again later to a data trim our environmental burden. While implementing a seamless center or off-site archive internal system throughout the bank, we achieved tremendous results ■ Reduction in office space required to conduct backups as well as less in the area of sustainability.” equipment installation and media storage space Mr. W, Manager, Design and Build Team, Business Operations Dept. ■ Lower power consumption due to more efficient equipment. Following Japan’s devastating triple disaster in March 2011 Staff productivity and job satisfaction rose after the introduction of the (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdown), all organizations have a new suite of applications at the bank. Workers in all branches and clear and heightened social responsibility to reduce their power offices can now access a standardized set of tools for tasks such as consumption wherever and whenever possible. Hokuriku Bank will word processing, spreadsheets, email, information sharing and continue to find ways to improve its systems, thereby making publishing. Virtual PC environments – containing all necessary operations more efficient and environmentally sustainable. operating system files and application paths – are managed centrally and distributed to each employee’s computer remotely, thereby saving time and money. Furthermore, Fujitsu’s renowned range of Green ICT equipment contributes to environmentally sustainable operations at all stages of the product lifecycle.

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