IBM said that it will provide technology and services to Dongbu Insurance, a non-life insurer in Korea, to support Dongbu's enterprise-wide business transformation and lay foundations for the future growth.
Under the seven-year contract, valued at approximately $60m, Dongbu will work with IBM to streamline operations and build an integrated IT infrastructure based on IBM technology. Four IBM system z10 enterprise class and business class mainframe servers will serve as backbone of the system, running on z/OS and Linux operating systems and also IBM DB2 and websphere application server.
According to IBM, new workloads and existing core insurance applications will be consolidated into new IT system, which will be able to run multiple workloads simultaneously. As a result, all business activities can be conducted through an integrated user interface providing employees with a real-time, consolidated view of any policy holder’s data.
The company said that the use of IBM z10 will save both energy and space. Through its enhanced virtualization and automation features, system z also allows Dongbu to achieve high resource utilization, from a single point of control.
In addition, by converting its existing language system based in COBOL and Java into a framework-based development language system, Dongbu will be able to develop offerings by enhancing the speed from product development, through insurance certificate review, to market launch.
Kun-gyo Lee, chief information officer of Dongbu Insurance, said: “Based on IBM’s technology performance and price, we have selected IBM as the provider of Dongbu Insurance’s IT platform. Also, IBM has a proven record of providing clients with a long-term roadmap and technology with an optimal total cost of ownership.”
Suk-young Kang, director of financial services sector at IBM Korea, said: Dongbu’s new IT infrastructure will be Korea’s first reference of a mainframe system running on both z/OS and Linux operating systems which represents a future model for enterprise architecture.