Objective
Improve quality management
processes during development
of business-critical systems
Approach
Ensure eective performance
testing and quality assurance
by means of an integrated enterprise
load testing environment
Case Study
Alfa-Bank applications
run like clockwork
HPE Performance Center helps bank
set up eective performance testing
IT Matters
• Create an integrated workspace
for teams of testers
• Standardise enterprise load
testing processes
• Ensure knowledge transfer
between changing teams of
external service providers
Business Matters
• Minimise the risk of system
downtime during updates
• Avoid cost overruns while
increasing the volume of
performance testing operations
Alfa-Bank has multiple
business-critical systems.
Any modifications made
to them have to be
thoroughly tested. The
bank decided to roll out
HPE Performance Center
to boost the performance
and eiciency of these
processes. This has made
the work practices of testers
transparent and appreciably
increased the volume of
tasks performed.
Challenge
A need for centralisation
Alfa-Bank is one of the largest Russian
private banks by total capital, credit portfolio,
and deposits. Its strategic priorities include
a focus on asset quality and reliability
combined with the industry’s best customer
service, technological excellence, eiciency,
and business integration.
With the bank serving 22 million customers,
the load on its IT systems is substantial,
and so is the cost of any downtime.
Internal estimates show that unplanned
outage to a business-critical system can
cost up to $200,000 USD per hour. For
example when the money transfer system
is down, the bank has to forfeit transfer fees,
compensate customers and risk reputation
losses. Longer downtime can result in
lawsuits and penalties, with losses
potentially running into millions of dollars.
Case study
Alfa-Bank
“People change, but solutions supporting the testing processes have
to remain constant to ensure knowledge transfer and transparency
for management.”
– Anton Isanin, head of Performance Department, Alfa-Bank
Industry
Finance
Page 2
System performance testing is an essential
function: it is one of the key business
continuity assurance processes. With a
large number of business-critical systems,
meticulous enterprise load testing helps
minimise performance-related risks.
The IT Department at Alfa-Bank makes
at least 300 modifications to IT systems
each quarter as part of a growing trend.
Significant eort has to go into load testing
when business-critical systems are being
maintained. A total of 75 business applications
play a major role in the bank’s day-to-day
operations. Due to their critical nature they
are supported and tested centrally.
The bank also extensively outsources
performance testing to appropriately
licensed external service providers.
Competitive tendering is used to secure
engagement with cost eective and
reliable third parties.
“We’ve never shied from changing service
providers and have never grown attached
to them. People change, but solutions
supporting the testing processes have
to be consistent to ensure knowledge
transfer and transparency of processes for
management,” says Anton Isanin, head of
Performance Department, Alfa-Bank.
The bank had performance testing systems
in place, and although well structured, they
were previously based on dierent software
products and were not centralised, giving rise
to numerous potential problems.
Information about ongoing operations was
reflected in disparate systems, with each team
accumulating its own expertise while relying
on its own test results and test development
practices. From time-to-time the bank also
experienced problems associated with the
licensing of solutions running on disparate
platforms, while knowledge transfer posed a
major challenge whenever teams of testers
changed. An integrated enterprise load
testing solution would put an end to these
problems through unification of processes
and solutions used.
By managing resources and analysing data
in a centralised way the bank wanted to avoid
operational errors while contributing to more
productive and eicient workflows.
Solution
Continuity tool
The volume of tasks performed by testers
is constantly growing while the available
resources stay the same. Therefore higher
eiciency and more eective work practices
are required, which is exactly where the
solution for centralised management of
the testers’ work comes in.
“We had no illusions. We knew what type
of solution was needed and had very clear
requirements: HPE Performance Center
is perfectly aligned with the bank’s current
needs,” says Isanin.
Case study
Alfa-Bank
Industry
Finance
Page 3
Because this load testing solution is based
on the proven HPE LoadRunner, the bank’s
experts were already very familiar with the
solution. HPE Performance Center optimises
the workflows of a tester, while a user-friendly
interface makes product testing much faster
compared to other similar tools.
The Bank was convinced that HPE
Performance Center could deliver better
performance by appreciably reducing the
labour intensity of work processes. Another
important consideration was the numerous
Hewlett Packard Enterprise products already
being used to manage application quality.
It is also fairly easy to find professionals
experienced in HPE LoadRunner and
HPE Performance Center, which was another
factor the bank took into consideration.
“Most importantly, the system would
significantly improve the work performance
of employees, which is why the bank team
readily welcomed the new solution,” says
Andrey Kutukov, director of Software
Solutions, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Russia.
The scale of the project determined a
phased approach to the implementation.
The enterprise load testing solution was
first tested on two business-critical systems.
It is now being scaled up as more systems
are migrated to HPE Performance Center.
Over 20 systems have been connected thus
far. The integrated performance testing
platform will, in the future be expanded to
cover all business-critical applications.
Under the agreement with Hewlett Packard
Enterprise, Alfa-Bank has the right to connect
an unlimited number of HPE Performance
Center licenses over a three-year period.
The team therefore does not have to worry
about the need to reactively procure
additional licenses or be impacted by
functionality limitations.
Benefit
More volume but lower costs
“Implementation of the integrated system
for testing business-critical applications has
ensured transparency of processes. We can
see who is running what type of tests and are
able to control and plan usage of hardware,
which translates into more eective work
management,” says Isanin.
Until recently, computing resources were
allocated via email, while now the resources
are displayed in real time. Previously a
dedicated manager was required to control
each system along with a relevant team of
external service providers, now one manager
can easily handle several projects at once.
This is exactly why full automation of
enterprise load testing processes
was needed.
HPE Performance Center has become
a part of the wider Application Lifecycle
Management (ALM) system being
built by Alfa-Bank. It is already being
integrated with other HPE products
for infrastructure monitoring.
Case study
Alfa-Bank
Industry
Finance
Customer at a glance
Software
• HPE Performance Center
There are also plans to integrate
HPE Performance Center with Jenkins –
an open source set of development process
support tools – which will enable developers
to automatically initiate load testing of
applications that are created and evaluate
test results.
This approach opens the way for wider
application of DevOps procedures based
on integration of the system development
and operation units. When this integration
is performed in conjunction with a joint
environment for managing performance
testing processes, this significantly
reduces the lead time from specification
of requirements to commercial deployment.
Implementation of HPE Performance Center
is an important step in this direction.
Moreover, this approach becomes feasible
owing to centralisation of services.
“Indeed, this approach is the future, although
it is too soon to discuss using DevOps at our
bank. So far it is limited to only one team
working on the Alfa-Click online bank project,”
says Isanin.
According to internal (and fairly conservative)
estimates, investments in the project will pay
back in two years, which is seen as a quite
satisfactory result. Isanin believes that it
makes sense to launch a centralised system
for managing performance testing processes
when a company has more than five
business-critical systems. To make the
solution cost-eective, there has to be a
constant demand for application testing
services. If such a need exists, the project is
justified: more volume of work is performed
at lower cost.
Learn more
hpe.com/software/performancecenter
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© Copyright 2016 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without
notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
4AA6-3644EEW, February 2016
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