Huawei Kicks Off Open IT Ecosystem For Finance Industry

Huawei plans to partner with financial services providers including Acenture, Deloitte, First Data and Infosys to promote the the adoption by the banking industry of open-standards and cloud-based technologies comparable to those used by Internet start-ups.

“Internet companies have achieved great success by deploying cloud computing and open architecture,” Huawei stated. “This has inspired a new way for commercial banks to tackle business system challenges, enabling a limitless expansion of system processing capabilities by deploying open source software and distributed processing architecture.”

Cloud technologies can be hosted either by a third party or on-site, and use techniques such as hardware virtualisation and utility computing to offer computing infrastructure that’s flexible and scalable, usually based on standardised hardware such as x86 servers. Huawei contrasted this approach with the “closed IT architecture supported by mainframe machines” that it says has restricted growth for financial companies.

Under the collaboration Huawei said it plans to launch a range of open-standards based offerings for the banking and finance industries, including cloud systems for online banking, credit loan, direct banking, micro-and-small-loan services, core accounts and credit cards, as well as mobile teller and home banking technologies.

The Shenzhen-based company said it and its partners plan to offer support for financial institutions as they migrate to these systems.

At a Beijing launch event, Huawei said it would work with eleven banking IT systems providers on the offerings, Accenture (China), Beijing Advanced Digital Technology (ADTEC), Beijing Yucheng Technologies, Beiming Software, DHC Software, Deloitte Business Advisory Services, Digital China System Integration Service Company, First Data, Infosys, Micro Focus and Worldline Technologies.

Huawei said it plans to focus on ICT infrastructure, with consulting firms, application vendors and system integrators offering applications and services designed for the new systems. The launch event was attended by more than thirty companies and financial institutions interested in participating or using the technology, Huawei said.

Infrastructure renewal

Spain’s stock market and financial systems operator Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) and the Chinese investment body CITIC Trust Co. have both revamped their IT infrastructure using such technologies, according to Huawei.

“Huawei facilitates IT architecture transformation within the finance industry by providing highly reliable x86 cluster systems to support core transaction systems, in addition to cloud architecture for finance that supports the transformation of the business and processes of banks,” stated Wang Hongfeng, general manager of Huawei’s finance solutions, enterprise business group at the launch event. “Huawei also provides platform resources support through our open labs, innovation centers, authentication centres, and secondary development and remote support.”

Last month Deutsche Telekom said it would begin offering cloud-based services such as infrastructure, platforms and applications in a partnership with Huawei.

The conglomerate is a major player in businesses ranging from enterprise communications to smartphones to wearable devices.

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