Enterprise IT vendor IBM announced its private cloud deal with Westpac New Zealand.
Westpac, one of the top outsourcing clients for IBM, aims to become New Zealand’s leading digital bank by utilizing IBM cloud.
The new five year agreement is part of an extensive services and technology contract which includes Westpac migrating some of its business critical IT systems into IBM’s Auckland data center, enabling enhanced customer service.
Utilizing IBM private cloud to develop and test tools within a dedicated environment, Westpac will deploy new online and mobile banking services and across multiple devices and platforms.
In addition, IBM is helping Westpac respond with enhanced online security features, such as the ability to manage identity and access through a single user ID.
“IBM’s private cloud platform will further enable increased development of Westpac’s digital capabilities as it responds to customer demands for a more personalized, convenient way of banking,” said Jason Millett, interim chief information officer of Westpac.
Gartner says poor return on equity will drive more than 60 percent of banks worldwide to process the majority of their transactions in the cloud by 2016.
Westpac will also optimize its IT infrastructure by renewing IBM mainframe services, midrange and storage platforms and migrating some services to IBM’s Level 3 data center providing even greater data resiliency.