Technological innovation over the past decade has radically changed the way people communicate and live. Innovative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in banking now leads the industry in technology advances. For example, global banks are now incorporating new technologies such as video and mobility into channel services.
Consulting company reports show that about 30% of the internet users use internet banking services all over the world. 46% of the banking users around the world think that banks should provide remote video-based services, and 73% of the banks believe that customers need these services. Pressures from customers demanding change and fierce competition also encourages innovation and transformation in internal operations, such as processing banking, Internet finance, and mixed banking.
Industry innovation and transformation injects new energy into financial services organizations but, at the same time, imposes new requirements on legacy networks:
- Service innovation requires large volumes of media data (including audio and video) to be transmitted between bank branches and between service centers
- Processing banks generate a large number of check image files on the network, which requires improved network transmission latency and reliability and requires changes in the data transmission model
- The extension of service channels (for example, to mobile marketing, online banking, and remote banking) and the rapid growth of terminals have blurred the boundary between bank intranets and extranets, which increases network security risks
- Big Data and business intelligence technologies require better bandwidth and data transmission efficiency in the data center Local Area Network (LAN)
After years of development, networks of financial services organizations are relatively mature, but they still lag behind the development of financial services. Table 1-1 describes the major problems.
Table 1-1 Status quo of financial services networks
| No.
|
Problem
|
Description
|
| 1
|
Network architecture
|
The production network is isolated from the office network, making it hard to support service convergence.
|
| Tree architecture involves multiple network layers, which cannot support the development of multiple service centers.
|
| Data centralization brings heavy traffic to core nodes.
|
| 2
|
QoS of transmission
|
Networks cannot effectively support multiple services (audio and video) simultaneously.
|
| Financial services organizations need massive bandwidth resources to support the operation of their massive Browser/Server (B/S) applications.
|
| QoS mechanisms can be further optimized.
|
| 3
|
Network security
|
Core areas need more comprehensive security protection.
|
| Terminals receive limited protection. Mobile terminal access brings new security risks.
|
| Service convergence requires data isolation for security purposes.
|
In addition, service changes impose new requirements on the networks of financial services organizations, as shown in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1Requirements on financial services network
Huawei Solution
Bank networks are typically divided into the data center network, LAN (campus network), and Wide Area Network (WAN). Huawei provides a network convergence and security solution to address customer pain points in this scenario. By converging physical networks and optimizing network architecture, Huawei can offer banks convergent, efficient, and secure network environments. Figure 2-1 shows the complete solution.
Figure 2-1 Complete solution
Convergent Network
A physically converged network provides communications services for applications and systems that carry different services (varied traffic and flow direction) with different security and QoS requirements.
Figure 2-2 Convergent financial services network
Efficient Network
Flattened network architecture and decoupling the data center from the network center greatly improve network access efficiency. A three-layer (core, convergence, and access) network is set up, replacing the original tree-structured network.
Figure 2-3 Efficient financial services network
Lighter data center workload:
- data center decoupled from the network center
- Core layer: ring-shaped for high-speed data forwarding along the optimal path
- Convergence layer: convergence by region, unified security policy control, and bandwidth allocation by service priority
- Access layer: multiple access points available; flexible access to multiple service centers
Architecture remodeling:
- a complete change from tree architecture; flexible service center and branch access
Secure Network
The solution provides comprehensive security protection, including terminal management, data transmission encryption, and data isolation for all three domains (service, channel, and user domains).
Figure 2-4 Secure financial services network
The service domain is subdivided by system and data security level to ensure higher service efficiency and improved security protection. In the channel domain, different protection policies are implemented for different access areas, with the strictest security protection for areas connecting to external networks. In the user domain, different security access and rights management controls are used to secure terminal access and the measures vary depending on user role, service type, and terminal type.
Future-Proof Network
These days, network development struggles to keep pace with IT development. To address this challenge, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) was introduced. SDN is an approach to redefine networks using advanced ICT applications. SDN allows financial service organizations to use software programming to flexibly adjust their networks according to upper-layer service application requirements. In addition, SDN can detect service quality in a timely manner. When the service quality degrades, network elements that affect service quality can be located quickly.
Figure 2-5 Future-proof financial services network
Customer Benefits
- Lower costs:
By converging multiple physical networks, the solution lowers total network development costs by up to 50%.
- Enhanced security:
Comprehensive security protection for user, channel, and service domains greatly improve network security.
- Higher efficiency:
The flattened network architecture and the high-speed core work together to improve network processing efficiency and support the development of processing banking
- Future-proof network:
Virtualization and SDN enable dynamic allocation of network resources according to demand.
