Dexia, a world leader in public finance and in financial services to local public authorities, and a top player in retail banking in Belgium and Luxembourg, Slovakia and Turkey, today announced that it has gone on line with the new IBM System z10 enterprise class mainframe, launched by IBM in February 2008, as a featured focus of Dexia’s efforts to implement IBM’s New Enterprise Data Center design principles.

Dexia was looking to increase data center efficiency and saw the IBM System z10 as means to minimize the number of mainframe footprints and allowing them to access higher levels of capacity, as well to give Dexia unmatched levels of security and automation in the tracking of Dexia’s IT resources to respond to ever-changing business conditions.

At the beginning of 2007, Dexia created a new subsidiary called Dexia Technology Services. This IT infrastructure service-oriented company regroups most of the IT infrastructure services for the Dexia Group.

Moving from the z9 to the z10 mainframe, the mainframe is the central point for all vital information needed to run the bank and all transactions are executed and consolidated on this environment. This makes the new system z10 the cornerstone of Dexia’s back office operations for the Bank in Belgium and Luxembourg and an ideal platform to support Dexia’s increased international focus.

“The System z10 has been designed as an engine to manage IT as a service and deliver to clients a policy-driven system that doles out, manages, and tracks appropriate IT resources where and when needed,” said Jim Stallings, General Manager, IBM Enterprise Systems Division, Systems and Technology Group, who was closely involved in shaping the Dexia deal. “Each new IBM mainframe offering leapfrogs our competitors by decades in the technology advancements and business benefits it delivers to clients. The IBM mainframe is the foundation of the next enterprise – unmatched in the industry today – and we’re thrilled that Dexia continues to look to IBM as valued collaborator in helping them achieve their business goals.”

Alain De Frenne, CEO Dexia Technology Services adds “As Dexia founded Dexia Technology Services, we regrouped all IT Infrastructures. We migrated, with the assistance of IBM, the existing separate mainframe systems towards one single consolidated environment. This consolidation will allow Dexia to further take advantage of the unique scalability and centralized security features of IBM’s z10 platform. Moreover a recent Gartner benchmark indicated that we have already very cost-effective mainframe operations, but I am confident that the Z10 will enable us to even further improve this efficiency.”

Dexia was one of the first clients to acquire the latest z10 technology, in the context of a worldwide early reference program and through flexible payment terms offered via IBM’s Global Financing (IGF) division. This project is not merely a technology update, but part of the longstanding strategic partnership between Dexia and IBM. For example, Dexia is a keen user of the advanced virtualization capabilities of IBM’s high-end Unix environments (System p) and middleware Software (Websphere and others). Collaboration examples in the services arena include Dexia’s strategic DataCenter Move project (technology services) and the “DBFIN” project, for an improved view on profitability of products and customers of Dexia Bank Belgium (business consultancy). As a “participant” to the early reference program, Dexia also joins forces with IBM in the context of the New Enterprise Data Center, an initiative launched by IBM to assist major clients on their journey towards the next level of maturity of end to end datacenter operations.