this is interesting:
Bank Bases IP Overhaul On NetWare
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24 2000 3:43 PM EST
Feb 24, 2000 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- While Novell NetWare is still best known as a platform for file and print services, the company is trying to convince IT managers to use its wares for e-business apps.
A $2.9 billion regional bank in New England has decided to build an IP-based framework based on NetWare and other Novell technology to let employees connect to mainframe-based banking software run by an ASP in another state, as well as offering limited e-banking for customers. Eastern Bank plans to upgrade completely to NetWare 5 using native IP, rather than IPX/SPX, which the bank is using.
"The IPX protocol is very chatty -- it consumes too much bandwidth across the link," said Henry Greener, vice president of network architecture at Eastern Bank.
Greener said Eastern Bank plans to start its rollout in about six months, with no completion date set. Eastern Bank said it expects to use about 12 percent to 15 percent less of its bandwidth by changing from the current NetWare to the IP-based NetWare 5.
In addition to NetWare, Eastern Bank uses mainframe gateway software and firewalls to connect its 1,100 employees with the mainframe run by a service provider in another state.
The bank's employees are spread across 50 sites. Desktops run the Novell 4.1 and 5 client software on top of Microsoft Windows 95 and 98. The company uses NetWare for SAA to connect to the IBM mainframe run by MNI Bank in Brown Deer, Wis.
The SAA connection is the lifeblood of the company, with the MNI mainframe running core banking applications. When a bank teller enters account information into the PC, it links in real time with the MNI mainframe.
Phil Schacter, an analyst at the Burton Group, said maintaining mainframe connectivity is an important part of companies' e-business strategies, and NetWare is well-suited to the task.
"While the need for this type of host integration is diminishing over time, you still have a lot of legacy systems that companies need access to," Schacter said.
The SAA gateway connects to MNI through an IP-based T1 from the bank's headquarters in Lynn, Mass., to MNI's New England data center in Braintree, Mass., and then over MNI's internal ATM backbone to Brown Deer.
For Internet connectivity, Eastern Bank uses a double-firewall model of Internet security. The company maintains a Novell Border Manager firewall and proxy at the edge of its network, with an NT-based server to provide Internet access to accounts for the bank's premier customers located outside the Border Manager firewall, and another Border Manager firewall located between the NT server and the Internet.
The company manages systems using Novell Directory Services (NDS) and Novell's ZENworks management software. It enables the bank to manage its distributed network centrally, since NDS provides granular control over network resources.
"Instead of having to administer 110 Novell servers, we administer one network centrally," Greener said.
Eastern also outsources its electronic banking services to MNI and application service provider NaviSite, though Greener said plans call for bringing that in-house by year's end. He is considering Novell's NDS eDirectory to enable customers to access their account data. The bank will likely use digital certificates in conjunction with NDS for authentication and will evaluate iChain, an e-commerce framework built on NDS that is due next month.
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