Nomura banks on success with Cisco s Data Centre 3.0 April 2011
Nomura banks on success with Cisco s Data Centre 3.0. International finance firm invests in the data centre of the future EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CUSTOMER NAME Nomura LOCATION London, UK INDUSTRY Banking and finance COMPANY SIZE 4,300 (EMEA) BUSINESS CHALLENGE To complete a mission critical data centre relocation in a tight timescale To provide cutting edge communication services for its people NETWORK SOLUTION Cisco Data Centre 3.0 Cisco Nexus Series Switching Platform Cisco Unified IP Phone 9971 CUSTOMER PROFILE Nomura is a leading financial services group and the preeminent Asian-based investment bank with worldwide reach. Nomura provides a broad range of innovative solutions tailored to the specific requirements of individual, institutional, corporate and government clients through an international network in over 30 countries. BUSINESS VALUE Performance improvement by a factor of 10 Power consumption reduced by a factor of two 25% increase in data centre capacity More than 50% physical server reduction Productivity and collaboration gains Based in Tokyo and with regional headquarters in Hong Kong, London, and New York, Nomura employs over 27,000 staff worldwide. Nomura s unique understanding of Asia enables the company to make a difference for clients through three business divisions: retail, wholesale (global markets and investment banking), and asset management. In 2008, Nomura acquired key parts of Lehman Brothers business in Europe and Asia. Page 2 of 6
Nomura did not only need a best-in-class solution, they needed an assurance from their suppliers and partners that one could be deployed on time, on budget, and to an exacting standard. ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGE Acquiring Lehman Brothers meant acquiring the Europeanbased technology infrastructure, and integrating that with Nomura s infrastructure. That initial task was incredibly important for the business to be able to get up and running. Integration was achieved and the new Nomura began trading within 90 days of the acquisition. Meanwhile, however, Nomura s Global Head of Infrastructure, Michael Fahy, was tasked with assessing whether the infrastructure provided the appropriate platform to support Nomura s ambition to become a top tier global investment bank. It was clear that the existing four datacentres, disparately located, would not meet this challenge. A new datacentre strategy would have to be deployed. The challenge was given an extra edge by virtue of the timescale involved. With Nomura set to relocate from its offices at London s Canary Wharf (which housed one of the firm s biggest datacentres) to a new European Headquarters at One Angel Lane, the new data centre solution also had to be in place and fully operational in just over one year. With 7,500 existing, servers and more than 1,000 applications to migrate as part of the process, Nomura did not only need a best-in-class solution, they needed an assurance from their suppliers and partners that one could be deployed on time, on budget, and to an exacting standard. As well as the expected power and efficiency gains from the project, the team were also keen to capitalise on energy saving and carbon reduction benefits from halving the server footprint, and employing virtualisation technologies. From day one, this was more than just the chance to rebuild what we already had. Instead, and in spite of the pressing deadline, we wanted to turn the challenge into an opportunity and fundamentally rethink the whole setup, says Michael. NETWORK SOLUTION With the clock already ticking, work began straight away on finding a vendor that could not only deliver the system to an exacting specification, but also support Nomura right the way through the testing cycle and beyond. We already had a long-standing relationship with Cisco, says Michael. That relationship was, and still is, based not only on positive experience of the technology itself, but also trust that the team can deliver what they say they re going to. When you re dealing with an implementation of this size and scale, you can t underestimate just how important that can be. But that wasn t the only reason that Nomura swiftly put Cisco in the frame to build its new data centre. When we were looking for a technology partner that could help us with this specific challenge, we asked some tough questions about where their Page 3 of 6
products were in terms of life cycle, Michael continues. From our perspective, there was a lot out there that can be best termed as sunset technology. Cisco s solution on the other hand, was tried and tested enough to allay any fears over its quality, but with the power and versatility to give us the next generation performance that we needed. That next generation performance is driven by Cisco s Data Centre 3.0 foundation and the Nexus family of switches. It s the biggest investment banking deployment of the solution. With a combination of 7010, 7080, 5000, and 2000 series switches all running on Cisco s NX-OS software platform, Nomura is able to enjoy all of the benefits of a data centre network that boasts continuous availability, simplified network infrastructure and a lower total cost of ownership thanks to virtualisation technology. The network is supported by Cisco s ASR 1000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers, which provide a reliable and high-performance Wide Area Network solution. With a traditional data centre deployment taking between four to five years to implement, the timescale of just 13 months to get the Nomura site up and running meant that the setup and testing cycle was dramatically compressed. Getting everything together in time began to feel like a marathon made up of 100 metre sprints, says Michael. With that in mind, the Cisco team made the decision to provide project management resources on site, spending time at Nomura to ensure that any teething troubles were swiftly resolved. This was a project that was being carried out in real time, 24/7, and that presence on site was absolutely invaluable. Revolutionising Nomura s data centre wasn t the only item on Cisco s To Do list for the investment firm, however. As part of the relocation to new EMEA Headquarters at One Angel Lane, Nomura also asked the Cisco team to look at an update of its communications network, bringing both new and existing employees to the same level. Using the Nexus platform as the basis, a rollout of 4,500 of the latest 9971 Series IP telephones was added to the project, providing full at-desk video communication for Nomura across EMEA, and bringing people from across borders face-to-face at the touch of a button. BUSINESS BENEFITS For Nomura, the benefits from the new data centre range from the financial, to the environmental through to performance. What the Cisco solution has given us is an increase in performance by a factor of 10, while reducing our power consumption by a factor of two, explains Michael. The virtualisation capability of the new solution has allowed us to reduce our number of servers from around 7,500 to just 3,500, all while increasing our performance by as much as 25%. That equates to significant productivity gains, major carbon reduction and real cost effectiveness. The presence of the Nexus switches also gives Nomura the mission critical assurance that any organisation dealing with essential financial data needs to have. The Nexus 7000, specifically designed for the data centre, has been built with integrated software, hardware and management to provide optimum performance in a zero downtime, continuously available environment. The Cisco team made the decision to provide project management resources on site, spending time at Nomura to ensure that any teething troubles were swiftly resolved. This was a project that was being carried out in real time, 24/7, and that presence on site was absolutely invaluable. Page 4 of 6
The Nexus technology has given us a long-term platform for growth and security in what is a core component of our network infrastructure. This is a best in class, forward looking solution that has been delivered with a real spirit of partnership between Nomura and Cisco. Michael Fahy, Nomura s Global Head of Infrastructure From a collaboration perspective, the rollout of Cisco s Unified Communications solution in the 9971 Series phones has driven its own benefits. Beyond the efficiency gains of bringing everyone in the organisation onto the same communications platform, the addition of video to the mix has brought with it both morale and productivity boosts to Nomura. From an enduser perspective, Michael believes that it is also a great way of demonstrating the results of the project: It s a hugely visible way of showing everyone what we have achieved, in every sense of the word. The addition of Cisco Communications Manager to the setup allows instant access to customer data, as well as providing presence information to Nomura employees, letting them know whether their colleagues are available to talk and how best to get in touch. Implementing Cisco s Data Centre 3.0 solution has also given Nomura room to expand into the future. With the additional capacity providing room for application and data growth, Michael and his team can go forward with the knowledge that they have flexibility and freedom to adapt to the ever-increasing demands on the data centre. The Nexus technology has given us a long-term platform for growth and security in what is a core component of our network infrastructure. This is a best in class, forward looking solution that has been delivered with a real spirit of partnership between Nomura and Cisco. PRODUCT LIST Cisco Nexus 7010 Series switches Cisco Nexus 7080 Series switches Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches Cisco Nexus 2000 Series switches Cisco ASR 1002 Series routers Cisco ASR 1004 Series routers Cisco ASR 1006 Series routers Cisco Catalyst 4510 Series switches Cisco 5500 Wireless Controllers Cisco 1140 Wireless Access Points Cisco 9971 Series IP phones Cisco Communications Manager Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing For more details please visit www.cisco.co.uk/nomura Page 5 of 6