Stratus and InterSwitch claim 92% of the banking market in Nigeria, and aim for rest of Africa.
Johannesburg – 01st August 2007 – Stratus Technologies, worldwide provider of continuous availability solutions, has announced that its West African partner, InterSwitch, has successfully implemented Stratus ftServer solutions in 23 separate Nigerian banking institutions.
Dick Sharod, Stratus South Africa’s country manager says that 23 of the 25 banks in Nigeria are now using Stratus solutions, including the central banking switch. This now means the banking industry in Nigeria is running a continuously available solution end-to-end. Having started a few years ago as a cash only country, the Nigerian banking industry is now leading with banking systems that will be the envy of most 1st world countries.
A 92% share of the banking market in any geography is nothing short of remarkable in anyone’s books, says Sharod. “This dominance in the market is due to a combination of proven banking software from Postilion, an availability platform from Stratus, and what can only be described as the perfect blue-print for local skills and support from InterSwitch.
‘With InterSwitch already expanding into the financial markets in Zambia, Ghana and Sierra Leone, we feel extremely bullish about the same scenario playing out in these countries,” Sharod says.
Mitchell Elegbe, managing director of InterSwitch explains that his company’s core business is the provision of a switching back-end to the financial services industry in Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Sierra Leone.
InterSwitch considered Stratus’ technology as the only option when it built its infrastructure four years ago. As such Elegbe says one of the provisos for its customers connecting to the InterSwitch infrastructure is the use of Stratus technology.
This proviso is absolutely necessary, says Elegbe, since the InterSwitch infrastructure handles in the region of 15-million transactions per month with a combined monthly value in the region of US$800m.
“We cannot afford for our infrastructure or that of our customers to be down, it simply isn’t an option,” he says.
“Our technology strategy at its core relies on Stratus hardware and Postilion software, since we need a guarantee of both availability and performance for our customers.
“The technology Stratus has built into its offerings is in our opinion the only solution with the ability to deliver on both of these requirements in the Microsoft Windows world today – it was and remains the only logical choice for InterSwitch and its customers,” he says.
Over the past four years, InterSwitch and its customers have invested US$1.4m in Stratus availability solutions, which runs the switch and 23 customer sites. “That’s relatively little if you consider the level of performance and availability the solutions are delivering day-in, day-out,” Elegbe says.
“It proves that availability is no longer a luxury that comes at a substantial price premium – I would argue that it would take double the infrastructure from a competing server vendor to deliver anywhere close to the same level of availability as our Stratus infrastructure is delivering. And I have yet to see a competing vendor’s solution, regardless of size or price, rival Stratus’ availability,” he adds.
With the Nigerian market relatively sewn-up, InterSwitch and Stratus are moving into regions where InterSwitch has already paved the way, including Ghana, Zambia and Sierra Leone.
“With a strong chance of the same scenario playing out in those countries, we can not only look forward to one of the world’s greatest success stories, but the possibility of an inter-country switching solution being developed,” continues Elegbe.
“Our success in Nigeria has proven our confidence in the solutions we offer, giving our African expansion impetus. It is something that will only be possible through the reliability of Stratus solutions, and we look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with our partner for many years to come,” concludes Elegbe.
About Stratus Technologies
Stratus Technologies is a global solutions provider focused exclusively on helping its customers achieve and sustain the availability of information systems that support their critical business processes. Based upon its 25 years of expertise in server and services technology for continuous availability, Stratus is a trusted solutions provider to customers in manufacturing, life sciences, telecommunications, financial services, public safety, transportation & logistics, and other industries. www.stratus.co.za
Press Contact
Craig Rodney; Emerging Media Communications; (011) 792-4378; craig@emergingmedia.co.za
