Bank replaces NT with Win2000 Datacentre

Financial services provider Halifax will replace up to 500 of its 3000 NT servers and Unix systems with Microsoft's Windows 2000 Datacentre server (W2DC) to cut operational costs. But analysts warn that the savings may take some time to achieve.

W2DC is designed to ease the administration of massive multi-processor installations and extensive data processing. The bank began testing it last month, running on a Unisys ES7000 server.

Halifax will start to replace parts of its NT and Unix infrastructure in July, and is aiming to complete the whole project by the end of the year.

Zenon Chomyszyn, technology manager at the Halifax, told Computing that the company's Unix systems are too expensive to maintain, and that he hopes to reduce these costs by installing W2DC, despite a high initial outlay.

"The benefits will be the management of the systems and boxes rather than a saving in purchase price," he said.

Chomyszyn added that the operating system will increase the availability, reliability and scalability of the bank's databases, and will reduce operational costs by managing a single server rather than thousands.

Rival Abbey National has already installed W2DC. The system has been live for three months and the company is consolidating 50 NT systems.

W2DC is more reliable and robust than previous versions of the operating system, said Steve Lane, Abbey National's group technology and infrastructure services director. He expects the installation to pay for itself in about 18 months.

But Rakesh Kumar, programme director at analyst Meta Group, said users should not expect W2DC installations to produce immediate savings.

Kumar believes that changing the operating environment may actually increase the short-term expenditure. "W2DC is a pretty good release, but I'm not convinced that people should move just to try to save costs," he explained.

Companies using the product would gain in the long term because of improved performance and scalability, he said.

W2DC, released in October, is taking time to win over users, however. "Market conditions are affecting its take-up," said Kumar.

Also published in Computing