VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a leading innovator in enterprise software, today announced that Seylan Bank PLC (Seylan Bank) is the first enterprise in Sri Lanka to adopt VMware’s vSAN Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) and VMware vRealize Operations Manager. The adoption of VMware’s flexible and more secure technology platform has allowed Seylan Bank to scale quickly and efficiently, enabling it to accelerate innovation while enhancing its service offering to corporate, small, media enterprises (SMEs) and retail customers.
With the implementation of VMware’s vSANHCI, Seylan Bank said it is better positioned to serve a burgeoning population of mobile and internet banking consumers, driven by increased connectivity, and high server demands from incremental digital banking and application growth. Mobile broadband penetrationin Sri Lanka has grown over the five years from 8% in 2012 to 21% in 2017[1]. Although this is still in the early stages, the industry is expected to continue this strong growth trajectory over the next five years[2]. With assistance from Softlogic Information Technologies, a renowned Systems Integrator and an Enterprise level partner in Sri Lanka, the bank deployed VMware’s vSAN HCI and vRealizeOperations Manager solutions which allowed it to run, manage, connect and secure applications in a common operating environment. This allowed the bank to drive innovation andreduce time-to-market for new experiences such as digital banking services, by meeting the growing demands of compute power and storage on demand.
Before the deployment of VMware’s solutions, the bank said it relied on traditional servers and storage, which had limited capabilities to support its ambitions for scale and expansion plans. The legacy infrastructure also reduced performance levels and system uptime, hindering IT staff productivity and server provisioning speed.
Moving to a software-defined infrastructure enabled services that were previously available only via hardware to be delivered through software. This removed server downtime and increased application availability by 90 percent, according to the company. Additionally, the virtual machine provisioning saw an improvement of 70 percent – this means that a more efficient use of computing resources and significant reduction in the energy needed for power and cooling. The bank also saw improved system performance – atleast five times better than the legacy infrastructure. It had also cut total cost of ownership significantly, and reduced physical space through server virtualization, and thereby reducing the overall server footprint.
“As the industry moves to the next level of connectivityand service levels, sharpening our digital capability is the only way for us to win more customers, serve them better,entrench loyalty and maintain our momentum. VMware’s Hyper-Converged Infrastructure solutionsare more than just an IT fix, they deliver an unparalleled competitive edge and brings us closer to achieving our business targets and fulfilling our vision to become Sri Lanka’s best financial institution,” said Harsha Wanigatunga, CIO, Seylan Bank PLC.
“Sri Lanka’s banking sector is brimming with potential and in order to harness this, financial institutions need the right network foundation to enable innovation and scale at disruptive speed. Seylan Bank exemplifies this and we are very heartened to witnessthe bank’s immense progressin its digital transformation journey, and how that has paid off in enabling them to move fast and seize opportunities,” said Sanjay K. Deshmukh, vice president and managing director, SEAK, VMware.
Sidantha Peeris, Director – Sales & Marketing, Softlogic Information Technologies, remarked thatSeylan Bankhadcarefully evaluated all options before investing and they were confident that the new software definedstorage architecture isthe way forward. He commented on how transparent and opened Seylan Bank wasto embrace relevant ICT technology that can give their bank a competitive edge. He added that this is the first implementation of VMware vSANHCI (i.e. software-defined storage) in a Sri Lankan bank, and this architecture will help the bank to grow seamlessly as their business expands. The team, together with VMware, were fully responsible for the implementation and has expressed delightness that Seylan Bank had chosen Softlogic Information Technologies as their preferred partner for this landmark project.