Xây dựng chiến lược phát triển cơ sở hạ tầng công nghệ thông tin cho cấu phần máy chủ và lưu trữ dữ liệu của b

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH
---------------------

TRẦN SỸ CỪ

BUIDING STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SERVER SYSTEM AND
DATA STORAGE AT BIDV DURING 2019 – 2024
XÂY DỰNG CHIẾN LƢỢC PHÁT TRIỂN CƠ SỞ HẠ TẦNG CÔNG
NGHỆ THÔNG TIN CHO CẤU PHẦN MÁY CHỦ VÀ LƢU TRỮ DỮ
LIỆU CỦA BIDV TRONG GIAI ĐOẠN 2019-2024

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH

HÀ NỘI - 2018


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH
---------------------

TRẦN SỸ CỪ

BUIDING STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SERVER SYSTEM AND
DATA STORAGE AT BIDV DURING 2019 – 2024
XÂY DỰNG CHIẾN LƢỢC PHÁT TRIỂN CƠ SỞ HẠ TẦNG CÔNG
NGHỆ THÔNG TIN CHO CẤU PHẦN MÁY CHỦ VÀ LƢU TRỮ DỮ
LIỆU CỦA BIDV TRONG GIAI ĐOẠN 2019-2024

Chuyên ngành: Quản trị kinh doanh
Mã số: 60 34 01 02
LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH

NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS.TS. HỒNG ĐÌNH PHI

HÀ NỘI - 2018


DECLARATION

The author confirms that the research outcome in the thesis is the result
of author‟s independent work during study and research period and it is not
yet published in other‟s research and article.
The other‟s research result and documentation (extraction, table, figure,
and other document) used in the thesis are cited properly and the permission
(if required) is given.
The author is responsible in front of the Thesis Assessment Committee,
Hanoi School of Business and Management, and the laws for abovementioned declaration.

Hanoi, September, 2018
Author,

Tran Sy Cu

i


ACKNOWLEDMENT

I have gained huge knowledge, skill and insights from my MBA
course. The course raised my capacity of administration and management up
to the next level. I would like to extend my sincerest thanks and appreciation
to all those who have made this thesis possible.
I would like to express my great gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Dinh Phi for his useful comments, remarks and engagement
during my process of doing this master thesis. I would also like to thank the
leaders and staff of IT Center of BIDV and Technology Department of BIDV
who enthusiastically participated in the survey and provided me with valuable
advice and comments during my thesis completion.
Sincere thanks are extended to the Hanoi School of Business &
Management – Viet Nam National University, Hanoi for equipping me with
huge knowledge and skills through various interesting and practical subjects. I
also would like to thank my classmates for their friendship and reciprocal
encouragement to make our class unforgettable time.
During the process of writing the thesis, although the effort has been
made, due to the limitations of the level of knowledge, practical experience,
experience in scientific research, the thesis is inevitably limited. I would like
to receive the comments of researchers, teachers and readers so that the thesis
is more complete both scientific and practical reason.
Hanoi, September, 2018
Author,

Tran Sy Cu
ii


CONTENT
DECLARATION ............................................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDMENT ................................................................................... ii

ABBREVIATION .......................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... v
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................... vii
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER 1. BASIC THEORY ON BUILDING CORPORATE STRATEGY
AND IT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BANKS ............................................. 11
1.1. Concepts and Definition of a Business Strategy..................................... 11
1.2. IT and IT Strategy for Bank ................................................................... 12
1.2.1. IT Infrastructure for Banks .............................................................. 12
1.2.2 Server Systems for Bank .................................................................. 14
1.2.3. Data Storage System for Banks ....................................................... 20
1.2.4. IT Strategy for Banks ...................................................................... 27
1.3. Classification of strategies ..................................................................... 30
1.4. Process of building strategy ................................................................... 33
1.4.1.Design of mission, vision and objectives .......................................... 33
1.4.2.External Factors Evaluation (EFE) ................................................... 35
1.4.3. Internal Factors Evaluation (IFE) ................................................... 37
1.5. Strategic options matrix (TOWS) .......................................................... 39
1.6. Selection of strategic options. ................................................................ 40
Conclusion for chapter 1. ............................................................................. 41
CHAPTER 2: FORMULATION OF THE STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT
INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

INFRASTRUCTURE

FOR

SERVER

SYSTEMS AND DATA STORAGE AT BIDV DURING 2019-2024 ............... 42
2.1. About BIDV and IT system of BIDV ..................................................... 42
2.1.1. About BIDV ................................................................................... 42
2.1. 2 Information Technology of BIDV. .................................................. 48
iii


2.2. Analysis of the context and status of server and data storage system and
related issues at BIDV. ................................................................................. 52
2.2.1 Context and status of servers and data storage system of Corebanking. .. 53
2.2.2 Human Resource for managing and operating servers system and data
storage system of the Bank........................................................................ 58
2.3. Analyze the trends in IT development in the world, impact on server
systems and data storage in the banking industry. ......................................... 59
2.3.1 The trends in IT development in Banking. ....................................... 60
2.3.2 Trends in technology development of data storage system and servers ..... 63
2.4 Target and development requirements of server system and data storage
system at BIDV ............................................................................................ 70
2.5. Evaluation Criteria to developing information technology infrastructure
for server system and data storage system at BIDV. ..................................... 71
2.6. TOWS ................................................................................................... 72
2.6.1 External factor evaluation matrix (EFE) ........................................... 72
2.6.2 Internal factor evaluation matrix (IFE) of server system and data
storage ...................................................................................................... 75
2.6.3 Formation of strategy through the analysis of TOWS Matrix. .......... 78
CHAPTER 3:

PROPOSAL OF SOLUTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE

STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SERVER SYSTEMS AND DATA STORAGE AT
BIDV DURING 2019-2024 .......................................................................... 84
3.1. BIDV Directions on Development of IT Strategy .................................. 84
3.2. Resources for the Implementation ......................................................... 86
3.3. Plans and Priorities During Implementation .......................................... 88
CONCLUSION AND LIMITATION OF THE THESIS ............................... 91
REFERENCES............................................................................................. 92
APPENDICES 1 (In English). ...................................................................... 94
APPENDICES 1 (In Vietnamese). .............................................................. 100
iv


ABBREVIATION
SEQ
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37

ABBR
AML
API
ATM
BIDV
BOD
BSC

CISC
COBIT
CRM
DAS
DC
DRC
EFE
ERP
FC
Gbps
HADOOP
HDD
ICT
IFE
IT
ITIL
LAB
LAN
MIS
NAS
OS
OTP
PKI
RAID
RAM
RISC
SAN
SBV
SLA
VSA

WAN

DETAILS
Anti-money laundering
Application Programming Interface
Automatic Teller Machine
Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development
of Vietnam
Board of Director
Balanced scorecard
Complex instruction set computing
Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology
Customer Relationship Management
Direct-attached storage
Data Center
Disaster Recovery Center
External Factors Evaluation
Enterprise resource planning
Fiber channel
Giga bits per second
High Availability Distributed Object Oriented Platform
Hard Drive Disk
Information and Communications Technology
Internal Factors Evaluation
Information Technology
Information Technology Infrastructure Library
Laboratory
Local Area Network
Management Information System
Network Attached Storage

Operating System
One-Time-Password
Public Key Infrastructure
Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks
Random Access Memory
Reduced instruction set computing
Storage Area Network
State Bank of Vietnam
Service-Level Agreement
Virtual Storage Appliance
Wide Area Network
v


LIST OF TABLES

Table 1-1: External Factor Evaluation Matrix ............................................... 37
Table 1-2: Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix ................................................ 39
Table 1-3: Table of TOWS matrix. ............................................................... 40
Table 2-1: External Factor Evaluation Matrix (EFE) .................................... 73
Table 2-2: Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix (IFE) ...................................... 76
Table 2-3: TOWS matrix of the server system and data storage system of the
bank. ............................................................................................................ 80

vi


LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 0-1: Theoretical frame for analysis of building strategy for developing

information technology infrastructure for server systems and data storage at
BIDV ............................................................................................................. 7
Figure 1-1: DAS Architechture. .................................................................... 22
Figure 1-2: NAS Architechture. .................................................................... 24
Figure 1-3: SAN Architechture. .................................................................... 26
Figure 1-4: Process of building EFE matrix.................................................. 36
Figure 1-5: Process of internal factors analysis. ............................................ 38
Figure 2-1: BIDV‟s Organizational Structure. .............................................. 46
Figure 2-2: BIDV‟s Governance Structure .................................................... 47
Figure 2-3: IT Organizational Structure & Reporting Workflow .................. 48
Figure 2-4: Server and data storage for Corebanking model ........................ 54
Figure 2-5: Server operating system at BIDV .............................................. 56
Figure 2-6: Database management systems ................................................. 57
Figure 2-7: SAN storage and Tape Library model ....................................... 58

vii


INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale Of the Research
Corporate strategy is very important for Enterprises. Today, to survive
and develop, enterprises need to build their business orientation and suitable
strategies (corporate strategy as well as strategies for Core function of
Enterprise) based on the research and analysis of the external environment
and internal environment, to take advantage of opportunities, minimize risks
from the business environment and promote the strengths and minimize the
weaknesses.
Proper strategy will create good direction for the business, is the
guideline for the operation of the Enterprise. Especially, when the competition
becomes fierce, strategies are the key tool to ensure success in the market.

Starting from that practice, building business strategies for businesses
in general and for each product/service as well as the core functions of the
Enterprise is very necessary for Enterprise. It helps enterprise to orient their
business goals and develop clearly, orienting their individual parts, resources
suitable to the common objectives of the enterprise. Proper strategy helps
avoiding waste of resources‟ Enterprise, that make enterprise weak and no
taking advantages of strengths as well as has no clear development direction
for the product/service. Today's business environment is changing rapidly
(especially the rapid development of information technology) and global
competition requires enterprises to be proactive in adapting to that
environment.
The Bank now, more than ever, relies on information technology to
provide services and to maximize value, In banking, the IT system plays a
very important role. Information technology is a major trend in modern
banking. The appropriate technology solutions will ensure the development of
1


banking. Information technology in the right direction to help banks increase
competitiveness by diversifying products and services, occupy market share
by the automated trading facilities, increased business capacity and efficiency
of commercial banks, speed of payment, increased currency turnover, thereby
contributing to improve the efficiency of social capital.
In the strategy of the banking sector to 2020, the State Bank of Vietnam
has the following content: Building a system of infrastructures in information
technology and modern banking technology. The operation of the banking
system should be based on the modern information and communication
technology infrastructure in almost all aspects of banking operations.
BIDV (Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development
of Vietnam), as the longest-established bank in Vietnam, as of 31 December

2017, BIDV had total assets of more than VND1.176 trillion (~USD51.9
billion), making it the country‟s largest commercial bank in Vietnam. BIDV
has a wealth of experience in Vietnam, providing a full range of modern and
convenient banking products and services including deposits, loans, trade
finance, payment and account services, and card services and among others.
With 24,000 officers, employees and financial consultants who are wellqualified and well-trained with full experience and have been accumulated
and transferred for over half of a century, BIDV always brings its customers
the benefits and reliability.
BIDV has modern IT system, is leading the way in the Vietnamese
banking system in the application of modern technology. According to
Vietnam ICT index by Ministry of Information and Communications and
Vietnam Association for Information Processing, from 2007 to 2017, the
bank has ranked first in terms of readiness for IT implementation among
Vietnamese commercial banks.
2


One of the key components of BIDV's IT system are the server system
and data storage. To meet the requirements of hundreds of banking
applications, BIDV's processing center has near 1000 servers and data storage
system with capacity of over 350 TB.
BIDV„s Server systems with multiple technology platforms are Intel
(CISC architecture), power (RISC architecture), There are some types of server:
Tower Server, Rack Server, Blade Server. There are many server operating
systems being used such as windows server, polaris (unix), linix (unix), ...
Today with the rapid development of virtualization technology in the
IT field, allowing the establishment of multiple virtual servers on the physical
server system (eg: One physic Server can allow creating dozens of virtual
server).This technology also

allows the allocation of resources between

virtual servers (CPUs, RAM, ...) in a flexible way to meet the demand for
software applications,...
In the decision No.488/QĐ-NHNN dated March 27, 2017 of the State
Bank of Vietnam on IT Application Plan, related to this issue, State Bank of
Vietnam has requested commercial banks on IT infrastructure as follows:
 To standardize IT infrastructure in line with national and
international technology standards to optimize IT investment
efficiency.
 Equip and deploy IT resources in managing virtualization platform
 Research and select IT products and services that are suitable for
virtualization-based deployment for efficiency.
In addition, the SBV does not approve IT projects, which do not use the
enterprise's shared virtual infrastructure, but use a separate server and data
storage system for the application software.
Up to now, there are nearly 1,000 servers and data storage system with
3


a capacity of over 350TB in BIDV's IT Data Center. With the requirement to
provide modern banking products and services to customers and meet
international standards in banking operations, BIDV deploys and implements
dozens of new applications in banking operations every year. To meet the
operational requirements of banking applications, dozens of servers are
replaced and added every year.
The development of science and information technology at high speed
leads to the rapid obsolescence of products and services. It also makes
intangible fixed asset depreciation large if the investment strategy for
corporate assets does not match the trend in technology development in the

world.
Therefore, the demand for analysis, orientation and guidance in
investment in the development of hardware and data storage system to ensure
to meet the requirements of banking operations in line with the trend of IT
development. This contributes to the efficiency of IT asset investment in
BIDV in particular and the overall efficiency of banking operations in
general.
With the above-mentioned issues and with the expectation that this is
the guideline for the operation of server system and data storage in the
development of BIDV's IT system, the author has chosen the research title :
“Building Strategy for developing information technology infrastructure for
server system and data storage at BIDV during 2019 – 2024”.
2. Literature Review
Building business strategies, strategies for major product/service as
well as the core functions of the Enterprise is very necessary and is
implemented by all businesses. There are many books and training manuals
detailing strategic planning.
4


However, each Enterprise has its own characteristics, has its own
development strategy for business activities. At BIDV,

BIDV‟s business

strategies as well as BIDV‟s IT Strategy are built and updated regularly.
At present, BIDV has an IT development strategy for the period 20152020 with a vision to 2025.BIDV's IT strategy is an over-aggregated strategy
for the operation of the IT system to meet BIDV's business strategy.
There are many components of BIDV's IT development strategy.
Server system and data storage components are only a part of the strategy

with general directions such as development of modern IT infrastructure in
accordance with national and international standards to meet the requirements
for serving modern banking applications.
At BIDV, so far there is no research title or topics in detail strategy for
development of the server system and data storage. Therefore the topic does
not overlap the other published works.
Here are some of the works I have approached:
- Development strategy and application of information technology at
the Bach Mai Hospital Control Center – Nguyen Minh Phuc (2014), Master
thesis, Hanoi National University.
- Building a business strategy for Ha Linh construction and trade
limited company from 2015 to 2025- Luong Khanh Tung (2015), Master
thesis on economics, Hanoi University of Minerals.
- Building business strategy at Viettien garment corporation and
implement solutions – Nguyen Thi Minh Huong (2011), Thesis of Master of
Business Administration, Foreign Trade University.
3. Research Objectives
- Systematize the theoretical basic for strategy building at the Corporate
level in general and in the Functional level as well as “information technology
5


infrastructure for server systems and data storage” in particular.
- Analyze the situation and operation of the server system and data
storage and related issues at BIDV.
- Evaluating the trends in IT developments in the world that have an
impact on the server system and data storage and related issues, especially IT
systems for banking operations.
- Apply the tools to build the strategy for developing information
technology infrastructure for server system and data storage at BIDV during

2019 – 2024
4. Objects and Scope of Research
The Research is focusing on the main factors that form IT infrastructure
development strategy including the server systems and data storage and related
development issues Server systems and data storage in BIDV‟ IT Center,
Time: 2016-2018 (For the content analysis of the situation with
secondary data and primary data) and 2019-2024 (building strategy).
Scanning environmental factors that will impact on the building and
implementation of information technology infrastructure for server system
and data storage at BIDV during 2019 – 2024.
5. Research Methods
5.1. Approach
Based on BIDV's corporate strategy as well as BIDV's IT development
strategy,

building

strategy

for

developing

information

technology

infrastructure for server system and data storage at BIDV during 2019 – 2024
depends on the mission and goals of the organization, based on the internal
and external preconditions of the organization to provide an IT development

strategy for the organization.
However, in order to develop strategy for developing information
6


technology infrastructure for server systems and data storage at BIDV, it is
necessary to refer to IT standards and trends in the world, the common
regulations of the Ministry of Information and Communication as well as the
State Bank of Vietnam.
Theoretical frame for analysis of building strategy for developing
information technology infrastructure for server systems and data storage at
BIDV is implemented as follows:
Analysis of the
context and
status of server
systems and
data storage and
related
organizational
issues.

Analyze the
trends in IT
development,
impact on server
systems and data
storage in the
banking industry

Target and

development
requirements
of server
system and
data storage
at BIDV

Evaluation
Criteria

Completing
the strategy for
developing IT
infrastructure
for server
system and
data storage at
BIDV

Figure 0-1: Theoretical frame for analysis of building strategy for
developing information technology infrastructure for server systems and
data storage at BIDV
a) Step 1: Analysis of the context and status of server systems and data
storage and related organizational issues.
To identify an IT development strategy for server systems and data
storage, the current survey of the organization's information system is an
important step in identifying the organization's IT development status. Survey
of current IT status of the organization to be implemented:
- IT Infrastructure Survey: Server, other systems and hardware systems.
- Application Software and IT application solutions are being used at

the Bank.
- Survey software system and IT application software: How the
deployed software systems is operating on server systems and data storage.
7


The development trend of banking and the need for server and data storage
system to meet the performance requirements of new banking applications.
whether it meets the requirements of users or not, need to upgrade ?
- Surveying human resources for IT for server systems and data
storage: Human resources for building and maintaining IT infrastructure.
Ensure that IT staff have the skills and knowledge to operate and develop the
information system, and to organize short-term or long-term training and
training courses to improve the capacity of IT staff.
b) Step 2: Analyze the trends in IT development in the world, impact on
server systems and data storage in the banking industry
In order to build an IT development strategy, learning and researching
IT development trends is a very important step, especially the trend of IT
development for the professional branch of the organization, analysis of
technology trends. To build IT development strategies in line with the
organization's development orientations and objectives.
Ask and discuss with experts to have advice inside and outside the
organization to clarify trends in IT development, impact on server systems
and data storage in the banking industry. Experts are expected to include
experts from BIDV, IBM, HP, PwC,…
c) Step 3: Target and development requirements of server system and
data storage at BIDV.
The mission and goals of IT development of server system and data
storage at BIDV are the guiding principles for the organization's IT
development. Therefore, identifying the right IT development goals on server

systems and data storage will help guide the development of organizational
development strategies.
The mission and goals of IT development of server system and data
8


storage at BIDV is determined by BIDV‟s Business Strategy as well as
BIDV‟s IT Strategy.
d) Step 4: Evaluation Criteria
Strategic development for the organization should be consistent with
the direction of Vietnam as well as the development goals of BIDV.
Therefore, the development of the evaluation criteria should be carried out in
accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Information and
Communication, the State Bank of Vietnam and relevant ministries. Along
with that, the technical standards to ensure the investment efficiency as well
as the quality of projects and products of BIDV.
e) Step 5: Completing the strategy for developing information technology
infrastructure for server system and data storage.
The last step in the methodology of building strategy for developing
information technology infrastructure for server system and data storage is
completing the strategy. After analyzing and evaluating, the implementation
solutions should be implemented.
5.2. Methods
First, the author reviews the basic theory on building a business
strategy at corporate level and functional level as for IT strategy.
Second, besides the collection of hard data (secondary data) the author
designs questionnaire and interview form to select soft data (primary data)
and then analyses both the hard and soft data using the tools for building
strategy for developing information technology infrastructure for server
system and data storage.

The author plans to send the questionnaire to 40 IT managers and IT
staff members at BIDV who are the representatives and correspondents.
The author plans to carry out an in-depth interview with 10 IT
9


managers at BIDV head office and branches to get the comments, view points
and suggestions for the strategy.
6. Thesis Structure
Besides the introduction and conclusion, the contents of the thesis is
divided into three chapters, detailed as follows:
- Chapter 1: Basic Theory on building Corporate Strategy and IT
Infrastructure for Banks
- Chapter 2: Formulation of the Strategy for Development Information
Technology Infrastructure for server systems and data storage at BIDV during
2019-2024.
- Chapter 3: Proposal of solutions to implement the information
technology infrastructure strategy for server systems and data storage at
BIDV during 2019-2024

10


CHAPTER 1 .
BASIC THEORY ON BUILDING CORPORATE STRATEGY AND
IT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BANKS

1.1. Concepts and Definition of a Business Strategy
Strategy is a general action program, a system of perspectives, goals,
objectives, solutions and policies to use the best resources and opportunities

to achieve the goals have been set out in a certain period. When it comes to
the strategy of an organization, it is often thought that that the organization
must determine what the goal is to achieve, how it is implemented, and the
resources it has to ensure to achieve the goals.
The author approached the concept of strategy for developing
information technology infrastructure for server system and data storage at
BIDV through the concept of strategy and business as follows:
In Cambridge Dictionary, Strategy is defined: A detailed plan for
achieving success in situations such as war, politics, business, industry, or
sports, or the skill of planning for such situations
According to Thommas Wheelen (23): a Strategy of a corporation form
a comprehensive master plan stating how the corporation will achieve its
mission ans objectives. It maximizes competitive advantages and minimizes
competitive disadvantages.
Kenneth R. Andrews (1) has defined Strategy is the pattern of decision in a
company that determines and reveals its objectives, purpose or goals and produces
the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals and define the range of
business the company is pursue, the kind of economic and human organization it
is or intends to be and nature of economic and non-economic contribution it
intends to make to shareholders, employees, customers and communities.
11


According to Assoc. Prof. Hoang Dinh Phi (8): A Strategy of an
organizations is a document, either written, printed or electronic, in which the
responsible people set out long-term mission & vision, and strategic
objectives for 5 years as standard, as well as the resources to be mobilized and
solutions to be implemented in order to archieve the set objectives.
Also, according to Assoc. Prof. Hoang Dinh Phi (9) in “Management of
Technology & Innovation, Basic Theories & Practices”, Training Docment

for HSB-MBA, 2015: Though the concepts and definition of business strategy
or corporate strategy are varied or different, most scholars and authors have
shown a common viewpoint that a Strategy of a company is an integrated set
of decision, plans and actions to be implemented for maximizing company‟s
competiveness.
Therefore, based on concept of strategy and business strategy which
have been defined by the world‟s researchers, the author proposed concept of
strategy for developing information technology infrastructure for server
system and data storage at BIDV as follow: A Strategy for developing
information technology infrastructure for server system and data storage is a
document, either written, printed or electronic, in which the responsible
people set out long-term mission & vision, and strategic objectives for 5 years
as standard, as well as the resources to be mobilized and solutions to be
implemented in order to archieve the set objectives.
1.2. IT and IT Strategy for Bank
1.2.1. IT Infrastructure for Banks
Information technology is explained as encompassing all possible
aspects of information systems based on computers. Software development
and the hardware involved in the IT industry include everything from
computer systems, to the design, implementation, study and development of
12


IT and management systems.
IT has become of the most robust industries in the world. More than
any other industry or economic facet, IT has an increased productivity,
particularly in the developed world, and therefore is a key driver of global
economic growth. Economies of scale and great demand from both consumers
and enterprises characterize this rapidly growing sector.
For Banking, IT has a special role and is important fundamentals of

modern banking operations, IT has helped the banking industry to deal with
the challenges the new economy poses. More than most other industries,
financial institutions rely on gathering, processing, analyzing, and providing
information in order to meet the needs of customers. Given the importance of
information in banking, it is not surprising that banks were among the earliest
adopters of automated information processing technology.
Technology has opened up new markets, new products, new services
and efficient delivery channels for the banking industry. Online electronics
banking, mobile banking and internet banking are just a few examples.
Information Technology has also provided banking industry with the
wherewithal to deal with the challenges the new economy poses. Information
technology has been the cornerstone of recent financial sector reforms aimed
at increasing the speed and reliability of financial operations and of initiatives
to strengthen the banking sector.
The IT revolution has set the stage for unprecedented increase in
banking activity across the globe. The progress of technology and the
development of world wide networks have significantly reduced the cost of
global funds transfer. It is information technology which enables banks in
meeting such high expectations of the customers who are more demanding
and are also more techno-savvy compared to their counterparts of the
13


yesteryears. They demand instant, anytime and anywhere banking facilities.
IT has been providing solutions to banks to take care of their accounting and
back office requirements.
Nowaday, the banking system depends entirely on the IT system.
Problems with the IT system will immediately affect the operation of the
bank. Therefore, ensuring the safety, security of data and maintaining stable
and continuous operation of the IT system is an important task in banking

operations.
IT infrastructure is defined as (15) the system of hardware, software,
facilities and service components that support the delivery of business
systems and IT-enabled processes.
IT infrastructure is composed of some major components, as follows:
- The facilities
- The Server systems and data storage system
- Networking and telecommunications platforms (LAN, WAN,
Internet,…)
- Consulting and system integration services
1.2.2 Server Systems for Bank
A server is a computer designed to process requests and deliver data to
another computer over the internet or a local network. Although any computer
running special software can function as a server, the most typical use of the
word “Server” references the very large, high-powered machines that function
as the pumps pushing and pulling data. Normally, today the server refers to
the a machine which support non-stop systems, provide 24/7/365 application
availability.
The purpose of a server is to share data as well as to share resources
and distribute work. A server computer can serve its own computer programs
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as well; depending on the scenario, this could be part of a quid pro quo
transaction, or simply a technical possibility.
Server classification can be determined by the following factors:
a) Classified by functions of the server.
As well as other fields, in banking operations, there are many server
systems that are used to serve different purposes such as:
- Web server: Web server refers to server software, or hardware

dedicated to running said software, that can serve contents to the World Wide
Web.

A

web

server

processes

incoming

network

requests

over

the HTTP protocol (and several other related protocols). Hosts web pages. A
web server is what makes the World Wide Web possible. Each website has
one or more web servers.
- Application server: Install Software application that allowing users in
the network to run and use them. An application server is a software
framework that provides both facilities to create web applications and a server
environment to run them. Application Server Frameworks contain a
comprehensive service layer model. An application server acts as a set of
components accessible to the software developer through a standard API
defined for the platform itself.
- Communications server: Maintains an environment needed for one

communication endpoint (user or devices) to find other endpoints and
communicate with them. It may or may not include a directory of
communication endpoints and a presence detection service, depending on the
openness and security parameters of the network
- Computing server: Shares vast amounts of computing resources,
especially CPU and random-access memory, over a network.
- Database server: Maintains and shares any form of database
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(organized collections of data with predefined properties that may be
displayed in a table) over a network. A database server is a server which
houses a database application that provides database services to other
computer programs or to computers, as defined by the client–server model.
Some popular database applications are used in banking field such as: Oracle,
DB2, Informix, and Microsoft SQL Server, …
- Catalog server: Maintains an index or table of contents of information
that can be found across a large distributed network, such as computers, users,
files shared on file servers, and web apps. Directory servers and name servers
are examples of catalog servers.
- File server: a file server (or fileserver) is a computer attached to a
network that provides a location for shared disk access. Shares files and
folders, storage space to hold files and folders, or both, over a network in
computing, i.e. shared storage of computer files (such as text, image, sound,
video) that can be accessed by the workstations that are able to reach the
computer that shares the access through a computer network.
- Mail server: Makes email communication possible in the same way
that a post office makes snail mail communication possible.
- Proxy server: Acts as an intermediary between a client and a server,
accepting incoming traffic from the client and sending it to the server.

Reasons for doing so includes content control and filtering, improving traffic
performance, preventing unauthorized network access or simply routing the
traffic over a large and complex network.
- Virtual server: Shares hardware and software resources with other virtual
servers. It exists only as defined within specialized software called hypervisor.
The hypervisor presents virtual hardware to the server as if it were real physical
hardware. Server virtualization allows for a more efficient infrastructure.
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