Fiserv Benchmarks i/OS Financial App at Rochester Lab

March 9, 2010 Alex Woodie

Banks running the i/OS-based Signature core processing system from Fiserv shouldn’t have to worry about the scalability of their chosen platform any time soon following the disclosure of a performance benchmark conducted jointly by Fiserv and IBM at the Rochester, Minnesota, lab.

Fiserv recently hauled a copy of Signature to the snowy confines of IBM’s Rochester lab to see how it faired on POWER 6 generation technology, including a Power Systems Model 570 server running the IBM i 6.1 operating system.

Signature was able to process 10 million accounts in 28 minutes when four processing cores were active on the i570, Fiserv says. When 12 cores were running, Signature was able to process 80 million accounts in two hours and 41 minutes. That ain’t too shabby.

The test was set up to mimic a real-world banking environment that required the software to calculate a large number of interest payments, fee charges, accruals, and deposits. In year’s past, Fiserv has benchmarked the app’s capability to handle Internet-based banking workloads.

According to Firserv, the benchmark shows the Signature platform’s capability to “deliver operational efficiency and scalability with lower overall cost of ownership as a result of processing more accounts with less hardware and software in a short timeframe.”

“Shorter processing times and less system downtime on a more efficient platform like Power System running the IBM i 6.1, lowers expenses for financial institutions by reducing capital and overall operating costs when compared to other solutions,” said John Macaluso, senior vice president of technology strategy for Fiserv’s Bank Solutions unit.

Signature is one of two i/OS-based core banking systems from Fiserv. The other offering, called Premiere, was originally developed by ITI and is often positioned as Fiserv’s flagship core processing software. Signature (previously named CBS, for Comprehensive Banking System) was previously developed by its CBS subsidiary, and sold internationally under the ICBS banner.

With the Power7 servers and IBM i/OS 7.1 right around the corner, Fiserv will undoubtedly be working with a number of its i/OS customers on upgrades. With quadruple the number threads per socket, the Power7 technology is expected to provide a big boost in processing capabilities–once the compilers are available, anyway.

Fiserv–one of three big banking application developers on the i/OS platform, along with Jack Henry & Associates and Fidelity National Information Services (FIS)–sits on the ISV Advisory Council at IBM, and has close relations with Big Blue.

“Fiserv and IBM are steadfast partners,” says Power Systems software manager Ian Jarman, “and we share a commitment to keep pace with changing technologies such as open application design, virtualization, and clustering to enable banks to remain competitive.”