AIB has rolled out Novell Linux-based solutions on both the server and desktop, moving away from IBM and Microsoft systems.
Andrew Johnston, senior technology architect at the AIB Group told Electric News.Net that the bank was utilising the replacement of aging branch systems based on Windows 3.1 and IBM OS/2 to implement new functionality offered by a Linux setup.
The deployment includes Sun Microsystem’s Java Desktop System — which is based on Suse Linux — alongside Novell’s eDirectory identity management technology. Some 40 AIB branches are now using the new system on over 1,000 desktops in Ireland and the UK.
Johnston said that AIB’s move was prompted by the limitations of its previous 16-bit architecture: “It was stable and gave us no problems — we had really clean code — but we had no capability to add extra functionality.”