A core banking platform renewed, data kept in-house.
One level above.

Baloise Bank, today part of Helvetia Baloise, moved its Avaloq banking system to Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer: cloud operations, run inside the bank's own data center.

Baloise Bank at the time of the project

Customer: Helvetia BaloiseBaloise Bank at the time of the project
Industry: Financial services
Expertise areas: Databases · Cloud
Technology: Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer · AvaloqHow we work with Oracle
Engagement type: Migration
Cutover: About 20 hours

The challenge

The platform under the bank's core system had reached the end of its lifecycle.

Baloise Bank's Avaloq banking system needed a new platform. The bank wanted lower operating costs, less technological risk, and the operating model of a public cloud, with the data staying in its own data center.

A platform at the end of its lifecycle. The technology under Avaloq had reached the end of its technological lifecycle and had to be replaced.
Avaloq is built on Oracle. Significant portions of the business logic are implemented in Oracle PL/SQL, so a straightforward switch to another platform was not feasible.
Cloning and deployment. The bank's processes for cloning and deploying databases had to be rethought for Oracle Multitenant and Exadata.

The scale

Several monthsproof of concept in a dedicated test environment
Weekspreparation for the cutover

The approach

Proven first in a test environment. Then moved with Oracle's own migration tooling.

Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer was chosen as the private cloud.

Proof of concept in a dedicated environment

The target platform was proven in a dedicated test environment.
Migration with Oracle Zero Downtime Migration

dbi services tailored Oracle ZDM to the bank's setup, so the platform change and the database architecture change ran as one largely automated and controlled transfer. The move to Oracle Multitenant happened in the same step as the move to the new data center.
Cutover and controlled decommissioning

The long-planned cutover weekend was carried out by the dbi services teams, followed by the controlled decommissioning of the legacy platform.

Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer
Oracle Multitenant
Oracle Zero Downtime Migration
Oracle Exadata Sparse Clones
Avaloq
Oracle PL/SQL

How we work with Oracle

The outcome

Avaloq runs on a modern platform. The bank's data stays in its own data center.

The cutover weekend went as planned. The bank's core banking system now runs on Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer, a modern foundation for the ongoing development of Avaloq.

About20 hours The cutover operation phase Source: customer story, “After an operation phase of approximately 20 hours”

A controlled exit. The legacy platform was placed in read-only mode and decommissioned in a controlled manner.
Interfaces ready. Application interfaces were adapted to the new data center and to cloud integration.
Oracle Multitenant. Avaloq now runs on Oracle Multitenant in a single-instance topology, a modern technological foundation for the platform's development.
Cloning built into the platform. Oracle Exadata Sparse Clones replace the previous NetApp Thin Clone technology. Test, analysis, and error-correction environments are cloned on the platform itself, including end-of-day and post-end-of-day processing.

Architecture

Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer, in the bank's own data center.

Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer, installed in the bank's own data center and operated as a private cloud. The Avaloq databases run in an Oracle Multitenant container database. Single-instance topology: Avaloq did not support a cluster architecture at the time of the project. Cloning for test and analysis environments uses Oracle Exadata Sparse Clones, which replaced the previous NetApp Thin Clone technology.