Kawaguchi-Shinkin Bank—Simultaneously realizing high levels of security and a significant reduction to operating costs using a thin client

The ChallengeCombatting increasing security risks with a fat client environment and higher operational loads.

Previously, employees were using approximately 400 Windows PCs for general business purposes throughout all Kawaguchi-Shinkin Bank branches. Sufficient efforts were expended with regard to the security of the PCs at each site to both protect the important data that customers entrust to a financial institution and to comply with all laws and regulations.

Internally, guidelines were formulated to prevent the leaking of data. Compliance with those guidelines occurred in conjunction with the implementation of technical strategies that included the use of IC card authentication when using PCs, and prohibitions against connecting external recording devices, such as USB memory, to those PCs.

In recent years there have been increasing amounts of targeted cyber-attacks against various organizations. As a result, there have been more and more incidents of business data leaks.

Kawaguchi-Shinkin Bank began considering a move to a system environment with greater levels of security and a lower risk of data leaks. Also, the Systems department wanted to reduce the burdens and costs associated with the operational management of the 400 PCs. Department staff needed to apply Windows security patches and updates for business-related applications to each PC, one by one.

This placed an extreme burden on the department. It was also cumbersome to provide support when trouble arose with the PCs. Although there were directives to save any data files used for business to shared servers, a lot of other data ended up being saved to individual computer hard disk drives. When those computers failed, it was difficult to restore that data.

The SolutionParallels RAS chosen for seamless integration and delivery.

To introduce the thin client system, Kawaguchi-Shinkin Bank compared various products and services against their business requirements.

Installation of Parallels RAS began on a trial basis for the Systems department and in parts of the main branch. Over the course of an approximately year-long trial, it was clear that existing business could be carried out without issue, and multiple systems and applications could be launched without issue, among other things.

Once it was confirmed that there were no issues, a roll-out to all branches and locations occurred. The bank's general business computers were migrated to thin client systems using Parallels RAS.

The ResultsThin clients paired with Parallels RAS equaled reduced system costs and increased security.

The risk of bank data leaks dropped to even lower levels after the roll-out of the thin client environment across the entire organization. Unlike PCs, thin client devices have no hard disk drive, so no data can be saved on them. As a result, the security measures for the clients have become much simpler.

The reduction of the operational burden was also of benefit. With Parallels RAS thin client environment, all applications and data are maintained and saved on servers. Should a device ever fail, business can resume immediately simply by replacing that thin client device.

Prior to adoption, when a computer failed it needed to be carefully boxed up and meticulously tracked. Once repairs and restoration occurred after arriving at the Systems department, the same amount of effort was needed to replace the computer to its original location.

Now that security patches and application updates can occur at once on the servers, there is no longer any need to dispatch Systems department staff to on-site locations. Work that once required a staff of six people in the Systems department now only requires four. The environment has enabled sufficient support with fewer personnel.

Mr. Kokubun, the department’s manager, explained that the cost reductions that occurred after changing to a thin client environment enabled sufficient satisfaction for both initial and running expenses when compared to an environment where they needed to work while constantly swapping out computers.

Of particular significance was the ability to cut back on the indirect costs involved in the running of the environment. These indirect costs include a variety of expenses, such as those incurred when department personnel need to perform support tasks, travel expenses to each location, and the cost of security measures that are now moot due to the transition to thin clients. When all these are taken into consideration, the project succeeded in a massive cost reduction.

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