Faced with constantly evolving regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley, Know Your Customer, and Basel II, financial institutions need to maintain highly secure, cost-effective IT systems that safeguard their networks and enterprise data.

Dimitrios Ziakas Enterprise Architecture Manager Intel

While accurate, timely, and complete business information underpins compliance with each of these directives, the availability of information depends upon functional and available IT systems. This puts a lot of pressure on financial services IT teams grappling with huge amounts of data and complex legacy infrastructures.

In response, Intel is working with Symantec to help financial institutions realize the benefits of the latest technology. Altiris (now part of Symantec) service-oriented management software enables IT organizations to manage, secure, and service heterogeneous IT assets easily. Now, operating on systems powered by Intel® vPro™ processor technology for desktops and Intel® Centrino® Pro processor technology for notebooks, the Altiris console runs more efficiently, delivering secure and compliant IT systems while protecting financial enterprise data and minimizing end-user downtime.

In an increasingly automated and cost-driven business landscape, IT uptime is crucial and a key factor of any continuity strategy. In this environment, any disruption to critical frontline applications impacts trading performance and the bottom line directly. With the new joint solution, IT support teams can remotely diagnose and repair PC faults, deploy patches, organize updates, and quickly isolate a PC from the network should a malware attack occur.

But it’s not just system uptime driving this need for remote IT manageability. IT teams within financial institutions are under increasing pressure to shrink technology overheads and deliver IT as a service. By reducing the need for desk-side computer call-outs, IT staff can significantly reduce their support costs.

The Intel technology uses second-generation Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) and Intel® Virtualization Technology to provide hardware-based security support and energy-efficient performance for remote desktop and notebook management. With Intel AMT, IT teams can also power-off systems to save energy without forgoing system control or security. This allows them to turn a system back on for patching or coordinated “start-of-the-day” power-on.

One tier one bank, deploying a standard small form factor desktop based on Intel vPro processor technology, has already found it can save more than USD 4 million (GBP 2.3 million) on electricity alone each year just by switching off its systems during out-of-office hours. Managing the power-on and power-off states of a 60,000-desktop estate using this technology allows the equivalent of 14,311 tons of CO2 savings, while IT departments can still secure, patch and update systems before users return to the office1.

For financial IT teams trying to align technology with business, the potential for the latest processor technologies to improve security, manageability, and reduce operating costs is huge.
A tier one bank has already found it can save more than USD 4 million (GBP 2.3 million) each year just by switching off its systems during out-of-office hours¹

By managing the power-on and power-off states of a 60,000-desktop estate using Intel vPro processor technology, the bank saves the equivalent of 14,311 tons of CO2 while its IT department can still secure, patch and update systems before users return to the office¹

¹click here for full results and testing configurations

Filed under: Issue 2 - Summer 07