Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group (ISP.MI), has announced an agreement with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to adopt innovative technology infrastructures that will support strategic growth as the bank launches a new digital banking service. The collaboration will help the bank to continue evolving IT security while accelerating performance and reducing IT energy consumption.
Consumer demand for digital services and increasingly stringent security, compliance and sustainability regulations are making it necessary for banks to constantly review and upgrade technology infrastructures.
Intesa Sanpaolo has responded with a business plan that includes major investments in IT infrastructure optimization, technological modernization, and the introduction of leading cyber-security techniques. This includes the creation of a new digital bank Isybank, which has the goal of providing customers with the highest levels of performance, efficiency, and security in digital services. The plan also calls for the adoption of increasingly stringent ESG policies, with Intesa Sanpaolo positioning itself as an industry leader in terms of social impact, climate commitment, and the ambition to achieve zero net emissions by 2030.
Through the agreement and the collaboration with IBM, Intesa Sanpaolo will be able to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the Hybrid Cloud, and Artificial Intelligence which will enable an open, flexible, and secure digitization while at the same time contribute to a significant reduction in energy consumption and its related environmental impact. In particular, the modernization of the bank’s technology environment with the IBM z16 – designed with energy efficiency in mind to achieve greater performance with less energy used – will enable Intesa Sanpaolo to reduce its infrastructure energy consumption related to the z16 of around 20% and to contribute towards limiting its environmental impact.
Intesa Sanpaolo is relying on IBM’s efficient and secure technologies, while continuing its adoption of the Red Hat Openshift hybrid multi-cloud platform, industry-leading open-source clouds, consistent with the Group’s hybrid cloud model. The availability of application and microservices models hosted within Red Hat Openshift technology on the IBM z16 will enrich the Group’s range of transformational approaches.
The collaboration between Intesa Sanpaolo and IBM will also form the basis for further developments, including preparation to help protect sensitive data and infrastructure from possible cyberattacks in a post-quantum future. As quantum computers become increasingly powerful, it is important that companies in highly regulated industries, such as the banking sector, take measures to protect their data from future cryptographically relevant quantum computers that may be able to decrypt today’s standard security protocols.
IBM has been researching and developing quantum-safe technology that enables the protection of sensitive data. Intesa Sanpaolo will protect its data with the IBM z16’s quantum-safe cryptography capabilities which provide a foundation for the bank to start future-proofing its systems, applications, and data, now.
“We have started a journey to digitize our processes and customer services by leveraging the most innovative technologies and an ecosystem of national and international players” – says Massimo Enrico Proverbio, Chief IT Digital & Innovation Officer di Intesa Sanpaolo. “This includes the evolution of the Group’s infrastructure, which the new IBM technology will help make more flexible, performant and sustainable.”
“We are excited to work with Intesa Sanpaolo to promote the development of innovative, secure and more sustainable digital solutions also through the adoption of IBM z16 technology in the Group’s hybrid cloud model”, declares Marco Utili, Managing Director Intesa Sanpaolo Group, IBM Technology Italy, “We believe that this collaboration represents a unique opportunity to bring sustainability and technological innovation to the center of the agenda of the Italian and European financial sector”.
