Sicoob(Credit Unions Systemof Brazil)isthe largest financial institutionturned tocooperativismin Brazil.Sicoobworks withthe same products andservicesthat commercial banksoffer, butthe differenceis that Sicooboffersall these servicesat a lower cost.
The adoptionof Systemztechnologywas a decisive factorso Sicoobcouldreachthe current prominentposition in thenacional financial market.CurrentlySicoobis consideredby IBM asthe largest customerofz/VMsystem in number ofIFLprocessorsandvirtual servers ofLatin America.However, toreach thisfeaturedposition, Sicoob’s technologyhad to facemany challenges, breakingparadigmsto consolidatethe currentTechnology farm.
In the year of 2006, Sicoob’scomputationalparkwas composedby a smallDatacenter, withaprocessing and storageinfrastructureof lowplatform with equipment of heterogeneous architecture,on anentry levelmodel.This type of configurationhas broughta number ofproblemsthatpreventedits scalabilityand expansion:lowavailability,highhorizontal growth,poor performancein processing,limitation ofhardware connectivity,the precariouslevel ofplatform support, amongmany otherscomplicating factorsthat areinherent inlegacy technologies.
With the objective of adopting a solution that would fit a processing model with high availability and quality of service delivery, in 2007 Sicoob marked his break with architecture homemade solutions. Therefore opted for the System z architecture through the acquisition of its first mainframe, the z9 model and the implementation of z/VM version 5.4 virtualization system. And so that its structure wouldn’t collapse with the new demands, also sought to strengthen the entire peripheral technological park, acquiring as well an IBM DS8300 storage model, a networking SAN equipment of the Brocade brand, the DS48000 model and backup solution using IBM TS3500 model. It was the beginning of the virtualized environment on z/Linux, with a high-end storage solution and redundant SAN channels.
For the following year, an upgrade was made to the z10 model Mainframe, where more IFLs were acquired aiming to increase its processing power. In order to assess higher performance to the data recording, it began to adopt a mixed technology to deliver the discs to the virtualized z/Linux servers. The operating system would be focused on resident DASD disks using the FICON protocol, while JBoss applications and DB2 would make use of the benefits of the FCP protocol, through the creation of LUNs directly in Storage.
In2009Sicoobmarks anew highlightin its historywhen constructinga newdata centerandbegins to planthe geographical contingencyof itsdata,a project thatmet theneedsofDisaster Recoveryand compliance of the Central Bank regulations.In the same year,in order toabsorb theincreasing demandof the data backupvolume andthe implementation prospection ofcrossoverbackupbetween sitesand expansion of the tape library automated IBM TS3500 was conducted.
In 2010acquiresa new z196M49modelMainframewith 16IFLsandanadditionalStorageDS8300model,wheredelegates tohis oldZ10Mainframe,stilllocatedon the old site,the taskof receivingthe contingencyof themost critical services.This yeartheadopted versionofz/VMbecomes6.1, giving greaterstabilityandunified managementthroughDirMaintaimed to a bettermanagement ofvirtual machines.
In 2011Sicoobreforms its highplatform park andan upgrade ismadeto the twoStorageDS8300for thelatest modelof the time,theDS8700,totaling200TBof expansionandupgradeoflegacytape libraryQuantumi2000for the Quantumi6000and theirrespectivedriversfor LTO-5standard.In thisperiod, withthe twositesfullyoperational,the replicationof critical dataviaDWDM is started,officializingthegeographical contingency;open-sourceproductssuch asNagiosandJBossare alreadyconsolidatedinproduction, as well ashomegrown solutions(SRTB).At this stagethe version ofz/VMis upgraded to6.2 andacquiresnew guidelinesaimed at theperformanceand better managementof virtual machines.
In 2012SicoobacquiresanotherMainframez196M80 modelwith 36IFLs, beyondmaking anexpansion of itsMainframeM49to receiveanother 20IFLs.This newMainframecomesto support the newBusiness Intelligence architecture, which stillreceives astrongapparatusin the storage industrywith a newmodelDS8800Storageandappliance Netezza forDataWarehouse. Stillin this period theGreen ITproject islaunchedthatconsolidates thehistorical power consumption savings, due to thevirtualizationofallcomputer park,andhighplatform included as well,whichcapturesan added benefitthisstrategic decisionmadein 2007.
In 2013 following the rapid growth of the access to their services with the accession of new cooperatives, Sicoob expands once more its processing power on the high platform and acquires additional 24 IFLs for the z196 M80 Mainframe, 11 IFLs for z196 M49 Mainframe, 4 SAN equipment model DCX and over 300 TB of disks to its storage DS8800. This massive acquisition of hardware structure comes with a new strategy for high availability when installed between its two largest Mainframes: the SSI cluster and adopts for both the processing as well as storage area, a policy of provision of resources directed to workloads profiles. The level of knowledge, training and skills of the technical staff of high platform was driven by the amount of hours of consulting and training acquired from each purchase made in infrastructure. Also this year the homologation environment was provided based on z/OS using DB2 database for use in high performance workload.
Aligned withthe future prospectivesandstrategic projectsfor the constructionof aprivate cloud infrastructurethat aims toboost the industrializationof IT services,a roadmap was created withstrategies,actions of aquisitionand process improvementsto generate new business.These initiatives includeactingas a service provider, social networking,collaboration and SaaS.