TSB – Data Protection
How Parallo designed and implemented modern data architecture for TSB so it could make high-impact decisions.
TSB: Putting customers first since 1850
From humble beginnings in New Plymouth, TSB has been helping Kiwis get ahead with their finances for over 165 years. With more customers, more branches and more ways to bank than ever, the business has always had its customers’ best interests at heart.
Four years ago, when TSB saw an opportunity to take a more enterprise-based approach to its data and future-proof its position in the market, it enlisted Parallo.
Legacy system could be enhanced
As with many large enterprises, TSB operates in an ever-evolving, rapidly changing environment. The company’s legacy system has served it well for many years. Still, there was also room for improvement that would allow it to manage new applications and workloads more effectively, maintain trusted data recovery and backup and prepare for cloud migration down the track.
TSB was also looking to work with a specialist partner that could support its internal IT resource.
“We needed a partner who had a very flexible working arrangement where we could get the right software solutions in place, but also someone who would support us operationally and add value in road mapping our strategic thinking. Parallo was the best match for us,” explains Judge Gifkins, Technology Lead – Platforms.
The solution: modern data architecture - with room to grow
With the Commvault Data Platform already implemented, it was a matter of managing and optimising the platform to meet TSB’s requirements.
A Commvault partner for many years, Parallo proposed modern data architecture that offers a scalable, cost-effective solution as the business continues to grow while maintaining backup and recovery goals.
“We needed a proven solution that could backup all our data, but we also needed the support for that to be done without TSB effort, and the combination of Parallo and Commvault was a very convincing case. The reporting proves that. We now understand the percentage of assets which are now backed up and can be restored successfully,” Judge says.
As per its standard process, Parallo hosted a series of workshops with TSB’s team over two days to brainstorm ideas, requirements, and constraints, which resulted in a strawman solution. From there, Parallo’s design team produced high-level design docs before handing them over to the implementation team for the build phase. Additionally, full migration and test plans were put in place to support TSB’s staged transition – without posing any risk to business operations.
"What differentiates Parallo is I feel like they're working with us, not for us. We can have open, constructive, honest conversations, and they've become an integral part of enabling a lot of our strategic decision-making.
For example, as we're embracing cloud computing, we're exploring how we can inject Parallo and their cloud expertise into our cloud operating model."
Greater scope for fast-scaling business
With a combination of the new Commvault
technology and Parallo's managed service, TSB now has the foundation to grow rapidly, without sacrificing flexibility or functionality.
The success of the upgrade gave the business full confidence in its data protection and was the start of an ongoing working relationship with Parallo. This means TSB's team can now focus attention on other valuable business projects and goals.
"We've seen a reduction in the amount of technology incidents we have in our operating environment, specific to the tech Parallo is responsible for, and we've also been able to descope our engineer responsibilities, so they're not distracted by daily operational tasks, and can instead add value elsewhere. Our partnership with Parallo, and the way they work,
has made that possible."
Ongoing partnership: monthly reporting and more
Today, Parallo manages and supports the upgraded Commvault ongoing. It constantly optimises, monitors and improves the platform to maximise TSB's investment, and regularly reports on insights including heat-mapping and recoverability. Over time, Parallo's remit has evolved with TSB's needs including support with licensing and hardware performance.
"On a daily basis, Parallo provides virtual platform support, taking care of the 'food and water tasks' for our virtual infrastructure. The other aspect is data protection support, ensuring our infrastructure is healthy, backups are recoverable and our data secure – all those good things."
“What differentiates Parallo is I feel like they’re working with us, not for us. We can have open, constructive, honest conversations, and they ’ve become an integral part of enabling a lot of our strategic decision-making.”
Judge Gifkins, TSB | Technology Lead - Platforms
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