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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published July 9, 2010
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Did a mainframe glitch trigger DBS outage?
Mainframes continue to anchor bank systems, but why didn't redundancy measures kick in?
By WINSTON CHAI
(SINGAPORE) A malfunction at the very heart of the bank's technology infrastructure may have triggered the unprecedented systems failure that DBS Bank suffered early this week, sorces said.
BT understands the bank appears to have been hit by a mainframe glitch on Monday morning and this could have sparked the seven-hour hit to the bank's online banking, automated teller, credit card and Nets payment services. When contacted, a DBS spokeswoman said the bank will 'provide an explanation for the incident soon' as it is waiting for the interim investigation report to be completed.
Its technology services provider IBM would only say that it is still working with the bank on a 'full-scale investigation'. The firm had earlier attributed the breakdown to a 'systems outage' but did not specify which systems had failed.
Mainframes, sometimes referred to as big irons, are the most powerful computers that are found in large corporations.
These bulky machines, which could cost millions of dollars, typically handle critical business applications and storage, as well as heavy-duty number crunching. Common tasks that are taken on by a mainframe include processing financial transactions for banks, or churning out a large company's payroll.
With these machines having been around for over two decades, their demand has fallen in recent years as technology advancements now allow a number of mainframe applications to be offloaded to smaller computers with more powerful chips.
In 2002, DBS outsourced its network and mainframe functions to IBM under a $1.2 billion deal. As the pioneer of mainframe technologies, IBM is still the dominant player in this field, commanding a worldwide market share of over 90 per cent. All 50 of the world's top banks use IBM mainframes to process their transactions. The list includes financial giants like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Barclays Bank and HSBC. Besides DBS, IBM's other mainframe customers in the region include Bank of China and the Korea Exchange Bank.
'Mainframes are still very much in use and continue to be a very significant part of the IT infrastructure. This is particularly true in industries such as banking and finance, local and federal government, and even manufacturing,' said John Brand, a vice-president with analyst firm Springboard Research.
Given their importance, mainframe computers are typically well protected against unexpected outages. Common measures include installing surge protectors to shield against voltage spikes and back-up power supplies in the event of electricity failure.
In addition, most companies also factor in so-called redundancy features to spread the workload to other machines in case one fails. Some service providers even offer off-site redundancy where they run their clients' applications on their own systems during a breakdown.
'While every organisation has an ever increasing number of business-critical applications that must achieve at least 99.999 per cent uptime, it's the 0.001 per cent of downtime that people are still focused on. The financial and reputational implication of that very small fraction of a number is often worth many million or billions of dollars,' Mr Brand highlighted.
According to DBS, it first discovered the systems glitch at 3am on Monday. Services were partially restored by 10am and the others by lunchtime. The protracted delay has raised questions as to why its system redundancy measures failed to mitigate the disruption.
=> So why did it keep quiet about it and let its customers struggled at the ATMs and with Internet banking? Where's the accountability?
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) requires banks to observe a set of 'business continuity management (BCM) guidelines' to ensure that they remain operational in the event of a disaster or other emergencies.
Measures suggested by the regulator include formulating a business continuity plan (BCP) and conducting regular tests to familiarise staff with the procedures for emergency response.
'BCM remains an important contributing factor in MAS's overall supervisory assessment. MAS will, in the course of its supervision of institutions, review the BCP implemented, taking into consideration the extent to which the institution observed the guidelines, and its risk profile,' its guidelines say.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Did a mainframe glitch trigger DBS outage?
Mainframes continue to anchor bank systems, but why didn't redundancy measures kick in?
By WINSTON CHAI
(SINGAPORE) A malfunction at the very heart of the bank's technology infrastructure may have triggered the unprecedented systems failure that DBS Bank suffered early this week, sorces said.
BT understands the bank appears to have been hit by a mainframe glitch on Monday morning and this could have sparked the seven-hour hit to the bank's online banking, automated teller, credit card and Nets payment services. When contacted, a DBS spokeswoman said the bank will 'provide an explanation for the incident soon' as it is waiting for the interim investigation report to be completed.
Its technology services provider IBM would only say that it is still working with the bank on a 'full-scale investigation'. The firm had earlier attributed the breakdown to a 'systems outage' but did not specify which systems had failed.
Mainframes, sometimes referred to as big irons, are the most powerful computers that are found in large corporations.
These bulky machines, which could cost millions of dollars, typically handle critical business applications and storage, as well as heavy-duty number crunching. Common tasks that are taken on by a mainframe include processing financial transactions for banks, or churning out a large company's payroll.
With these machines having been around for over two decades, their demand has fallen in recent years as technology advancements now allow a number of mainframe applications to be offloaded to smaller computers with more powerful chips.
In 2002, DBS outsourced its network and mainframe functions to IBM under a $1.2 billion deal. As the pioneer of mainframe technologies, IBM is still the dominant player in this field, commanding a worldwide market share of over 90 per cent. All 50 of the world's top banks use IBM mainframes to process their transactions. The list includes financial giants like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Barclays Bank and HSBC. Besides DBS, IBM's other mainframe customers in the region include Bank of China and the Korea Exchange Bank.
'Mainframes are still very much in use and continue to be a very significant part of the IT infrastructure. This is particularly true in industries such as banking and finance, local and federal government, and even manufacturing,' said John Brand, a vice-president with analyst firm Springboard Research.
Given their importance, mainframe computers are typically well protected against unexpected outages. Common measures include installing surge protectors to shield against voltage spikes and back-up power supplies in the event of electricity failure.
In addition, most companies also factor in so-called redundancy features to spread the workload to other machines in case one fails. Some service providers even offer off-site redundancy where they run their clients' applications on their own systems during a breakdown.
'While every organisation has an ever increasing number of business-critical applications that must achieve at least 99.999 per cent uptime, it's the 0.001 per cent of downtime that people are still focused on. The financial and reputational implication of that very small fraction of a number is often worth many million or billions of dollars,' Mr Brand highlighted.
According to DBS, it first discovered the systems glitch at 3am on Monday. Services were partially restored by 10am and the others by lunchtime. The protracted delay has raised questions as to why its system redundancy measures failed to mitigate the disruption.
=> So why did it keep quiet about it and let its customers struggled at the ATMs and with Internet banking? Where's the accountability?
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) requires banks to observe a set of 'business continuity management (BCM) guidelines' to ensure that they remain operational in the event of a disaster or other emergencies.
Measures suggested by the regulator include formulating a business continuity plan (BCP) and conducting regular tests to familiarise staff with the procedures for emergency response.
'BCM remains an important contributing factor in MAS's overall supervisory assessment. MAS will, in the course of its supervision of institutions, review the BCP implemented, taking into consideration the extent to which the institution observed the guidelines, and its risk profile,' its guidelines say.
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