ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank has selected a Smarter Computing solution built on IBM PureSystems over its existing HP environment to create an intelligent infrastructure designed to help the bank manage growth, introduce new client services and boost its profitability.

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Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank, based in Mumbai metropolitan region, is the first bank in India to adopt IBM PureSystems. In making its decision, the bank was looking to increase the flexibility and capabilities of its core systems and to become more client oriented and responsive to changing market demands. With a network of more than 20 branches in Maharashtra and plans to expand in other states, the bank needed to refresh its hardware infrastructure to ensure better support for its core banking system.

PureSystems provides the answer to these challenges by automating systems management expertise with open, scalable systems that help increase utilization and reduce the total number of servers required in the datacenter.  By eliminating lower utilization servers – PureSystems allows the bank to consolidate its IT operations even as it grows its business model. Increased utilization equates to a smaller real-estate requirement, lower energy costs and lower systems management costs. As a result, PureSystems can help to free up the bank's valuable human resources from mundane, error prone, and expensive IT operational tasks, allowing them to rededicate these resources to critical customer service operations.

"IBM PureSystems is the ideal choice because it helps us in three main areas," said Shriram Date, CEO, Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank. "First, it reduces our cost and complexity - simplifying and reducing steps across the complete IT life cycle; second, it provides additional security by helping reduce enterprise risk with trusted protection built in from the hardware up; and third, PureSystems significantly reduces new application deployment times."

Working with Business Partner Finacus Solutions, IBM provided Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank with a solution consisting of IBM PureFlex System, Flex System Manager (FSM), V7000 Storage, Flex Chassis, BladeCenter H, and Tape Library TS 3100. The solution helps the bank to cater to newer workloads much faster, bringing down the deployment times from days and months to hours.

"Businesses today face significant challenges in managing large amounts of data and information. IBM's expert integrated systems help organizations use their information to better serve their clients and reduce costs," said Ken Muckenhaupt, CTO financial services sector, IBM Systems and Technology Group. "The solution we are providing to Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank will help move their business forward by increasing the bank's efficiency and profitability while reducing risk."

The IBM PureSystems family offers clients an alternative to current enterprise computing models, where multiple and disparate systems require significant resources to set up and maintain. PureFlex System enables organizations to more efficiently create and manage an infrastructure. PureApplication System helps organizations reduce the cost and complexity of rapidly deploying and managing applications. PureData System is tuned for cloud computing and can consolidate more than 100 databases on a single system. In addition to the common web application patterns supported by PureApplication System, the combination of both PureData and PureApplication Systems can be used for end to end transaction workloads.

For IBM Business Partners, PureSystems creates a new opportunity to help clients solve the complexity of enterprise IT, reduce costs and encourage innovation. From resellers to distributors and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), more than 700 Business Partners are supporting IBM PureSystems. PureSystems currently run tens of thousands of existing ISV applications across four operating environments including Windows, Linux, AIX, and IBM i operating system. Additionally, Business Partners have created more than 200 new solutions and applications that are optimized to run on PureSystems. These patterns of expertise, which span 20 industries, can be accessed through the IBM PureSystems Centre. They include leading solutions from some of the world's largest ISVs, including ERP systems and applications for the banking, marketing, healthcare and energy industries

To help address the new opportunity that PureSystems presents, IBM is also providing training, marketing, certifications and technical validation support to business partners.  For instance, dozens of IBM Innovation Centers in cities such as Bangalore, Dublin, Johannesburg and Shanghai are helping Business Partners develop and test their applications using IBM PureSystems. Business Partners can also bring their clients to IBM Innovation Centers to see PureSystems technology at work. 

For more information on IBM PureSystems visit: www.ibm.com/press/pure

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SOURCE IBM