Case Studies

Internet Bank - Asset Lifecycle Management

"Audit of existing technology Replace power hungry monitors with flat screens Upgrade 3.2KW V880 Web servers to 270W T2000 Consolidate old data onto fewer, more efficient servers Decommission unused machines"

The Challenge

In the second half of 2006, an internet banking company launched an initiative to review costs across the business. As an online bank, the company has none of the traditional retail banking infrastructure such as high street branches, so the savings had to come from improving operational efficiencies within the business. As Information Technology lay at the backbone of the operation, it was identified as an area that could yield potential savings.

However, the internet banking company has always been very prudent about making technology investments, ensuring it gets the most out of any assets. The company follows a strict IT purchasing policy, whereby staff assess at what stage in its lifecycle a product is at before any decision is made on replacement and decommissioning. This policy guarantees that a comprehensive business case is created before any new technology is purchased, demonstrating its business benefits as well as any cost efficiency.

In addition, the internet banking company has to adhere to regulations set out by The Financial Services Authority (FSA), which require financial institutions to keep certain data accessible for seven years. Therefore, even if an application is no longer being used, the server it sits on will still need to be kept running in order for it to access the data it holds.

The datacentre manager and the internet banking company, was part of the team that had to put their minds to finding innovative ways to make the business case for new technologies while at the same time making cost savings. His focus was on analysing the technology being used in the three data centres in its main sites.

Across these sites there are a number of business functions, including a call-centre and the back-office operations that support the business, all using desktop and laptop PCs as well as the high energy consumption servers within the data centres.

The Solution

Prior to the cost saving exercise, the datacentre manager was looking to replace 1,500 CRT monitors that were coming to end of life and needed to make a business case for replacing them with newer flat screen monitors. The datacentre manager calculated that the monitors were typically being used for 10 hours a day and then left on standby over night. He realised that by replacing the 1,500 old CRT monitors with the more energy efficient flat screen monitors, that use approximately a third of the power consumed by the existing monitors, they would pay for themselves based purely on the power savings within a 19-21 month period.

This previous piece of work led the manager to think about what other cost savings the company could make across the business simply by reducing the amount of energy used by IT devices.