Combining Cloud-Like Economics, Full Control over Data and High-Availability

Overview

Challenge

• Consolidate mission-critical data storage and maximize cost-efficiency with flexible usage-based pricing to align IT expenses with business needs.

Solution

• Deliver high-availability on-premises storage in combination with monthly, consumption-based billing through EverFlex from Hitachi.

Outcome

• Gain flexible scalability, increase cost transparency and reduce number of systems while retaining full control over the storage infrastructure.

Challenge

DZ BANK is the second largest commercial bank in Germany, the central institution of the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken cooperative financial network, the central bank for more than 700 German cooperative banks and the holding company for the companies in the DZ BANK Group. Additionally, the bank provides shared IT services for two of its subsidiaries.

As central bank, DZ BANK runs mission-critical high-performance systems including financial trading applications. To process and evaluate millions of trades in real-time, DZ BANK requires the highest levels of infrastructure availability, security and performance.

At the same time, DZ BANK strives to continuously optimize its processes and operations. But with workloads becoming ever more dynamic, and data requirements becoming more difficult to predict, DZ BANK looked for a storage offering that would scale in line with its business needs. And to better control its IT spend and increase cost transparency, DZ BANK wanted a more flexible, consumption-based pricing model.

Daniel Kaiser, Head of IT Data Center at DZ BANK, says: “Switching from costly upfront investments to more flexible billing that aligns with our actual data needs was an important element in embracing a forward-looking hybrid cloud strategy. For example, if we shift workloads to the cloud, we don’t want to be paying for storage resources that are no longer utilized.”

Solution

Building on proven, trusted partnership, DZ BANK decided to work with Hitachi Vantara to modernize its central data storage platform. To expand the capabilities of its existing environment, DZ BANK selected an EverFlex offering from Hitachi, which delivers dynamic storage capacity as a service.

The EverFlex offering enables DZ BANK to leverage a high-availability system architecture based on two Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) 5600 solutions. Crucially, DZ BANK retains full control over the systems, which are installed in its own data centers. However, rather than paying for the full installed capacity, the EverFlex package means that DZ BANK is charged only for the actual storage capacity consumed. The billing amount is based by Hitachi Vantara on the bank’s average monthly consumption to avoid sudden peak charges.

Denis Schneider, Group Head IT Operations Applications & Storage at DZ BANK, adds: “We really value the close and honest partnership with Hitachi Vantara. We’ve already solved various technical challenges together to ensure the highest availability and performance for our mission-critical trading applications. Making the best use of modern, cost-efficient storage solutions, we’ve simplified our architecture to just a single, flash-based storage tier for maximum performance across all workloads.”

In addition, DZ BANK worked with Hitachi to increase the granularity of analysis available with the on-demand billing model. “We’re now benefitting from daily tracking of our capacity usage,” confirms Daniel Kaiser. “Moving from monthly to daily storage billing metrics helps us to understand our costs even better. We can now respond faster to control costs and align our storage even more closely to our business. At the same time, actual billing is based on monthly average usage to smooth peaks and offer a more balanced billing model.”

Outcome 

Thanks to EverFlex from Hitachi, DZ BANK benefits from a cloud-like billing experience while using reliable, high-performance on-premises storage. “EverFlex from Hitachi delivers far more flexibility than other offerings we evaluated,” says Daniel Kaiser. “As we implement a hybrid cloud strategy, moving workloads dynamically as needed between on-premises infrastructure and the cloud will be key to enabling us to innovate in exciting fields such as artificial intelligence.”

As part of its optimization strategy, DZ BANK has consolidated many storage systems onto more powerful, scalable, and cost-efficient Hitachi Vantara solutions. Greater standardization in the data center also increases the sustainability of the business.

The flexibility of the EverFlex service extends beyond storage capacity. As its requirements evolved, DZ BANK sat down with Hitachi Vantara to discuss adjusting the pricing structure to reflect new workloads. “Together, we looked at our changing workloads and renegotiated the pricing mid-contract, taking into account big transformations such as large-scale insourcing projects,” confirms Daniel Kaiser. “Working with Hitachi Vantara feels like a true partnership where we share a goal. First and foremost, our partnership is driven by trust.”

One key enabler of the high level of flexibility is the short simple structure of the contract. Daniel Kaiser concludes: “When we first moved to consumption-based cloud economics for our on-premises data storage, the Hitachi Vantara offering was a new and innovative approach. Since then, the service has matured and become even more flexible. The more granular cost analysis is very valuable for helping us manage our IT more effectively. The dynamic billing gives us the freedom we need to implement our IT strategy and adopt the latest technologies that help us to boost the competitiveness of our banking services.”

DZ BANK AG

DZ BANK serves as central institution of the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken cooperative financial network and commercial bank. It is the central institution for all cooperative banks in Germany, which hold the majority of its shares. DZ BANK supports the business of the independent cooperative banks in their regions with the aim of strengthening their competitiveness. The combination of local customer knowledge and central product expertise has proved to be highly effective. Additionally, DZ BANK AG acts as the holding company for the DZ BANK Group.