EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ChallengeAs soon as Dutch banking giant Rabobank took a majority share in Zanaco, an expansion program was launched. Yet the company didn’t have the right computing platform. Mwangala Muyoyeta Palale, Head of IT, says. “There were issues with power and systems going out of support. As a result we were spending more and more time on repairs.”

SolutionZanaco is one of Zambia’s top banks. It leads the way in areas such as automated teller machines and Internet banking. No surprise then that it also sought a leading compute platform and chose Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®).

The way VMware is bundled with UCS enabled the bank to achieve the virtualization levels it wanted from the best cost standpoint. The main data center was upgraded with Cisco UCS, ASA security devices, and Nexus switches.

“This was a vital project for the bank. The flexible solution and our experience with Cisco meant it went smoothly,” says Jonah Chege of Seven Seas Technology, which ran the project.

ResultsOnce the old hardware is fully replaced, with about 50 percent less servers, the bank expects to improve service. Dennis Nkula says: “It’s easier to run and we spend less time fixing things.”

Manlio D’Alessandro, Director of Corporate Support, sums up: “For us to bring down our cost-to-income ratio, we need to bring down OpEx. Now we’re a lot more efficient and on track to do that.”

Customer Case StudyAfrican Bank Halves Data Center Size

Moving to Cisco UCS gives Zanaco virtual compute platform for sustainable growth

Customer Name: Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco)

Industry: Financial services

Location: Zambia

Number of Employees: 1500

Challenge• Create IT platform for growth

• Simplify admin and upgrade compute

Solution• Cisco Unified Data Center

Results• Cut servers by 50 percent

• Less cost and greater efficiency

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 1 of #

“For us to bring down our cost-to-income ratio, we need to bring down OpEx. We’re a lot more efficient and on track to do that.”

Manlio D’AlessandroDirector of Corporate SupportZambia National Commercial Bank

Customer Case Study

For More InformationTo learn more about the Cisco solutions featured in this case study, please visit:

www.cisco.com/go/datacenter and www.cisco.com/go/ucs

Product List

Data Center • Cisco Unified Computing System

– UCS B200 M3 Blade Servers – UCS C240 M3 Rack Servers

Routing and Switching • Nexus 1000V, 5548UP, and 7000 Series Switches • Nexus 2232 Fabric Extenders • Catalyst 3560 and Catalyst 6509 Switches • MDS 9148 Multilayer Fabric Switches • 3925 Integrated Services Routers

Fabric Interconnects • UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects

Security • ASA 5555-X Adaptive Security Appliances

Virtualization • VMware vSphere • Microsoft Hyper-V

Storage • NetApp • Dell EqualLogic

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Printed in the UK 07/14 Page 2 of 2

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