Overview
IBM worked in partnership with Vtesse Networks and Vanco to provide a private national network that utilised dedicated optical bandwidth to provide a converged voice and data service that is unconstrained by traditional tariff structures.
Vtesse Networks provides an optical network core between regional offices and data centres. These sites are directly interconnected in resilient, redundant configurations using private optical fibres, overlaid with Wave Division Multiplexing to ensure unlimited bandwidth, scalability, flexibility and cost efficiency.
The benefits
- performance - the new optical networking core supplies almost limitless bandwidth.
- efficiency - the new network branch connectivity improves considerably, providing an expected eight-fold increase in throughput for approximately a quarter of the previous overall cost.
- scalability - the new network removes the old components which constrained capacity and hampered new service deployment.
- service guarantees - the new network incorporats full quality and class of service features as part of a fully converged voice and data service over a single high-performance network.
- service flexibility - the previous network was constrained by the types of technology it used and the way in which they were deployed. The new solution harnesses new technologies to considerably increase service flexibility.
The new solution reduces incremental bandwidth costs in the optical core, allowing Lloyds TSB to consider alternative web-based or bandwidth-hungry applications that would have previously been unviable.
"Our clients are now demanding wider business transformation service engagements where they not only gain a significant cost reduction, but can also achieve step changes in effectiveness and business capability, allowing them to respond rapidly to changing market conditions," said Tony Cronin, General Manager, EMEA Financial Services Sector, IBM Global Services.
"This project will allow us to increase the cost efficiency and enhance the flexibility of our IT infrastructure, by providing our staff with a more efficient and responsive service for our customers. This innovation will help to transform our infrastructure into a 24-hour service platform for our business systems," added Igor Andronov, director of IT at Lloyds TSB at the time.
Case Study
Lloyds TSB – The Optically Enabled Enterprise
Customer profile
Lloyds TSB is one of the leading UK-based financial services groups, whose businesses provide a comprehensive range of banking and financial services to over 15 million customers in the UK and overseas. Lloyds TSB has the largest multi-channel distribution network in the UK, which includes one of the largest branch networks with over 2,000 branches and around 4,200 cashpoints. It also has one of the UK's largest telephone banking operations with over 60,000 calls handled every day, and one of the most visited financial websites in Europe.
Acquisitions in recent years included Trustee Savings Bank and Scottish Widows.
Business requirements
IBM signed a 7 year £500 million deal with Lloyds TSB to enhance the bank's voice and data services in support of next-generation business solutions.
IBM act as the strategic technology partner for Lloyds TSB as the bank moves to a national, dedicated, high-capacity optical, DSL and MPLS network supporting both voice and data communications.
Vtesse Networks, the optical networking service provider, supply the high-capacity managed optical network that links datacentres to regional centres.
The network integration and management are provided by Vanco and provide high performance connectivity to all Lloyds TSB branches and cashpoint machines.
The implementation is one of the largest ever in Europe and will reduce Lloyds TSB's network costs, while providing a flexible, variable-cost, high-bandwidth, on-demand infrastructure that will support the evolving business requirements of the enlarged group.
The challenge
Customers are looking for technology partners who cover a broader range of skills than traditional service providers:
- integration - both systems and communications
- innovation - a deep understanding of how to exploit technology for business benefit
- project management - the ability to manage large scale transformation projects
- partnering - the ability to assemble the right team to provide a holistic solution They need a service provider that can assemble a group of partners to provide converged voice and data services which are flexible, have a variable cost structure with low incremental bandwidth costs, offer high-bandwidth, and are able support a new generation of web-based or bandwidth-hungry applications. These services are being seen as essential to support enterprises in transforming their businesses.
The partnership between IBM, Vtesse and Vanco was perceived by Lloyds TSB to be able to meet this complex challenge.
Their new optical network was designed to replace a traditional voice infrastructure. This infrastructure comprised traditional legacy PABX switches, PSTN, RAS, VPN and managed services with approximately 30 supplier contracts with a variety of suppliers.
The original WAN was deployed solely to support data traffic -- no voice convergence existed. Although historically the network had supported many legacy protocols and technologies, it had evolved to be an IP-only environment, concentrated around the principal data centres.
The new architecture hosts a single converged MPLS network covering every Lloyds TSB UK location, all with encryption capability.