17 June 2009

The Bank of Nagoya replaced its existing Active Directory system to improve security and save time by simplifying PC procedures.

Established in 1949, the Bank of Nagoya works to a business philosophy of ‘contributing to the growing prosperity of the region’. As part of its commitment to improving customer service, the bank has invested in the latest technology. For example, it was an early adopter of Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Bank of Nagoya consistently looks for ways to reduce its IT total cost of ownership. Its banking servers, ATMs and information systems were managed and operated by about 40 IT administrators, and it operated some 100 servers, including a number of Windows 2000 server-based systems for which support was due to end in 2010. These issues generated the need for mid-term and long-term solutions in the redesign of the existing system. In 2007, the bank began to seriously consider using the latest version of the Windows operating system.

Bank of Nagoya realised that the feature-enhanced Windows Server 2008 would benefit the business, especially in addressing the challenges of user management and reducing system administration work. However, the bank could not access detailed information on Windows Server 2008 as it had not yet been officially launched.

Bank of Nagoya turned to Fujitsu – which had access to abundant information on Windows Server 2008 – for help. Fujitsu also had extensive validation experience and a high level of Active Directory skills, all of which were important considerations. The bank chose to replace its Active Directory system with Fujitsu Primergy RX300 S4 industry-standard servers running Windows Server 2008, and to install Windows Vista or a subsequent operating system on its 2,000 PCs. It was confident that working with Fujitsu would enable fast and secure deployment of the Windows Server 2008 environment.

The project has delivered several key benefits in terms of security, usability and the time taken to set up and manage PCs. Windows Server 2008 enables the bank to set up different password policies to match each user’s privilege level, which its previous Active Directory environment did not allow. As a result it expects to achieve security and usability benefits at the same time.

By using Windows Deployment Services (WDS), an enhanced feature in Windows Server 2008, the bank expects to significantly reduce the time taken for its deployment of Windows Vista or later on 2,000 PCs by 2010 – a task that would have involved IT administrators visiting each branch office. WDS will also enable the bank to distribute all supported operating systems and applications as image files from the main office, dramatically simplifying initial set-up of PCs.

Bank of Nagoya can use Network Access Protection to automatically check patch application status, updates to antivirus pattern files, and security settings including personal firewall settings. Any PCs that do not comply with its security policies can be automatically fixed and updated before being allowed to connect to the business network, reducing the time required for PC management.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of Finance on Windows.

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