IBM Power Systems Replace Oracle Servers at ETrade Korea

In another competitive replacement for Big Blue, IBM said ETrade Korea has selected IBM Power Systems to run its new online trading system over Oracle servers

IBM announced that ETrade Korea has selected IBM Power Systems to replace a series of Oracle/Sun servers in its online trading system.

IBM announced on March 9 that ETrade Korea is deploying a new online trading system based on IBM Power Systems that can settle up to 970,000 financial transactions per hour in real-time€”16 percent faster than with the previous technology platform based on Oracle/Sun Solaris servers.

Officials at Big Blue said this move represents ETrade Korea€™s commitment to IBM's Smarter Computing approach to information technology to support its growth in the increasingly competitive and complex financial services market. With enhanced online services, ETrade Korea's 200,000 customers will be able to more quickly access up-to-date account information, stock quotes, community bulletin boards and online help features to better manage their financial portfolios.

Korea currently has the world's second-largest online trading market, with more than 40 percent of trades conducted online, according to the Korea Securities Dealers Association (KSDA). ETrade Korea offers trading in Korea Stock Exchange (KSE) listed securities, as well as KOSDAQ equities, futures, options, beneficiary certificates and mutual funds.

To better respond to fast-changing market conditions and customer demand for new services, ETrade Korea worked with IBM Business Partner LG CNS to replace its existing Oracle/Sun Solaris systems with IBM POWER7 processor-based systems to gain higher system use, availability and flexibility. By matching its IT workload to a system that's optimized for the task, ETrade Korea is increasing its IT services capacity while keeping costs low.

"Our goal is to secure a more advanced level of IT competitiveness than other companies by delivering better customer experiences," said Hoon Ki Jung, CIO and managing director for ETrade Korea, in a statement. "With IBM Power Systems, ETrade Korea will be able to establish a stable and optimized IT environment that supports the company's future business growth, while increasing our current operational efficiency and cost effectiveness."

With the new technology infrastructure platform, ETrade Korea will be able to directly integrate its front-end business applications with back-end processes that are linked to the Korea Stock Exchange, resulting in higher transaction results per hour, IBM said. In addition, ETrade Korea will be able to quickly analyze customer activities to draw insights for the company's up-selling and cross-selling marketing efforts. ETrade Korea will also be able to use the new platform for business application development.

"ETrade Korea required a secure and robust IT platform to support its enhanced financial products and services, and chose IBM Power Systems for its unparalleled performance and stability," said Kyunghoon Cho, vice president of IBM Korea, in a statement. "Like ETrade Korea, a number of securities companies in Korea are turning to a Smarter Computing model from IBM to improve customer service and support their rapid business growth in this fast-moving market."

Moreover, IBM said this move is another example of a number of successful competitive takeouts for IBM Power Systems versus Oracle and HP. At a recent IBM Smarter Computing event in New York, Rod Adkins, senior vice president of IBM€™s Systems and Technology Group, said in the fourth quarter of 2011, Power Systems had more than 350 competitive displacements, which resulted in more than $350 million of business. Roughly 60 percent of this business came from HP, with most of the balance coming from Oracle/Sun, he said.