| Amount invested: |
$250m and counting |
| Organization: |
Foreign subsidiary of major international bank |
| Original Plans: |
This subsidiary was recently purchased by the major bank to
provide a presence in a new geographic area. The computer systems were in
the process of being changed from a central mainframe system to a
distributed Unix Client/server solution to improve customer service and
reduce costs. As this project was already under way, the new parent is
leaving the plans unchanged at this time. |
| Unanticipated problems: |
The Unix servers originally specified (from a
variety of vendors to keep them all competitive) were all under-configured
by a factor of four to five times. In most cases this means that there is
no system large enough available today. The project team also found that as
larger servers became available the later software releases tended to use
up the additional capacity without increasing the actual business
throughput or transactions. However, probably the single major concern is
that the bank is experiencing data loss - especially when something fails.
The result is that recovery from a failure can take many days before full
integrity can be assured. |
| Project Status: |
The corporate head of IT has been charged with making this
system work but currently he does not see how this can be achieved AT ANY
PRICE. His only consolation is that he can very quickly implement their
mainframe-based worldwide systems if a real disaster looms. |
