ING Australia Lowers IT Costs with Migration Strategy
With Speedware’s help, ING developed a new strategy to migrate ING’s applications onto a more modern technology infrastructure.
"The money we saved by choosing a migration strategy can now be invested into innovative projects focused on helping to grow our business."
Greg Booker
CIO of ING Australia
Also available in pdf format 
When Hewlett-Packard announced the end of life for the HP e3000, ING Australia did not waste any time looking at strategies to move from the platform. After initially choosing to rewrite their applications, ING Australia soon found the rewrite project was progressing too slowly, putting business continuity at risk. The company reacted quickly by reviewing their options, researching the market and contacting Speedware, a modernization company specializing in HP e3000 migrations.
Speedware performed a comprehensive eight week Detailed Modernization Analysis (DMA), designed to unearth in advance, any underlying issues or problems that needed to be addressed, and to provide the crucial information required for proper planning, execution and budgeting. Speedware delivered a comprehensive report that did all of the following:
- Outlined ING’s current technical and business situation
- Described options for modernization
- Made a complete set of recommendations
- Provided detailed budgets, timelines, resource allocations and a project plan for the recommended migration solution.
The DMA also revealed 2.4 million lines of COBOL code and an initial inventory of 170,000 fi les. During the process of the DMA, it was determined that only 17,000 files needed to be rehosted.
ING Australia was very clear about their priorities so the target platforms were chosen in accordance with these guiding principles.
- The entire migration project had to be completed within 12 to 15 months
- The target platform had to be viable for a minimum of 10 years
- The solution had to be cost-effective
- Risk to business continuity had to be minimal
- The migration project had to result in consolidation of ING’s computing environment
The tight and aggressive time frame left little room to maneuver should anything go wrong. The breadth of ING’s environment - the environment represented 60% of customer business - combined with the inherent rigor of testing that is required in the fi nancial industry meant the pressure was on to ensure a smooth and successful migration.
Testing, approval and sign-off were very comprehensive, with all lines of business involved and required to sign off. An additional consideration for Speedware’s migration team was the complexity of ING’s utilities which, due to a high degree of integration, left a large technological footprint. The migration teams had to be mindful of the fact that any small change to one utility would reverberate throughout the applications.
By the end of the migration project, ING had two HP 9000s servers hosting six environments. It was clear the project was a success and much more cost-effective than had been anticipated. A natural by-product of the migration was a significant technology consolidation of 43 distinct technologies and utilities being reduced to 18. ING calculated that the cost of the re-hosting project combined with the resulting maintenance costs over the next ten years would be four to five times less expensive than if they had continued with their rewriting project. The success of this project was due in a large part to the commitment, accountability and responsibility demonstrated by ING and its senior management. Early in the project, ING engaged outside project auditors to review the project management and provide recommendations for improvement. ING followed those recommendations with an internal reorganization and introduced an organizational structure that would ensure the success of this project - the largest of ING’s IT projects for that year.
The success of the migration project meant the money saved could be invested into IT projects geared towards growing ING’s business. In addition, ING benefited from technology consolidation and a new and stable technology platform on which to build.
Key Benefits:
- Business continuity: with no dependence on an obsolete technology platform any risk to ING’s business continuity had been reduced by replacing the HP e3000.
- Solid technology base for the future: UNIX on HP 9000 provided ING with a stable platform that would be viable for at least ten years.
- Technology consolidation and simplification: the migration project resulted in the elimination of redundant code and a significant reduction in the number of technologies supported by ING.
- Lower total cost of ownership: the migration project provided significant cost savings and the lowest TCO as compared to alternative strategies.
ING Australia Limited (ING Australia) is one of Australia’s leading fund managers, life insurers and superannuation providers with more than $43 billion in assets under management and $717 million of insurance premiums in force. ING Australia is a joint venture between the global ING Group, which owns 51%, and one of Australia’s major banks, ANZ, which owns 49%.
Also available in pdf format
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