Platform 1

Platform 1 is an industrial platform capable to operate with high transaction load, thousands of users, and millions of documents and accounts. ​

Platform 1 combines all Applications, Application Objects and other Bank information resources in a whole. It gives the opportunity of quick development and a brea​​kthrough due to selection from over 1 200 fully ready functional Applications (options) and their inclusion in the current Bank infrastructure by integrating them with modules of third party vendors. 

Platform 1 allows the Bank to accelerate the launch of new Products manifold due to the use of a unique CFT Bank Product Catalog. 

Platform 1 is ​a technological platform for information systems CFT-Bank, CFT-Retail Bank, CFT-Management Accounting, CFT-Front Office, CFT-Budget Performance Monitoring Service for Bank Corporate Customers, CFT-Data Warehouse, and other systems developed on the basis of this platform.  

Platform 1 is divided into the following logical levels: 

• Level 1. Warehouse for application data of the application model: Oracle Server tables and views.
• Level 2. Business logic: Oracle Server stored procedures.
• Level 3. User workstation – "CFT-Navigator": universal client implementing the logic of application model view to end user.

Platform 1 provides for the bank:

• Creation of information and technological infrastructure with maximally complete functionality (corporate, retail and remote services, management accounting and budget planning, internal economic activity management, data warehouse).
• High productivity due to efficient and scalable system architecture which allows connecting additional server hardware as the business extends.

ARCHITECTURAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL BENEFITS 

The tools of technological Platform 1 allow not only developing well-structured, reliable in operation and quite easily modified software solutions, but also "connecting" information systems, thus providing full integration of the bank business. 

Scalability

Information systems implemented on Platform 1 have almost unlimited scalability; as the business extends, the bank can connect additional servers to the system. This is especially essential for banks that plan active business development because the opportunities of the information banking system are unlimited, irrespective of the size of the bank branch network and the scope of operations performed. 

Module Structure

The functionality of the instrumental platform allowed implementing on its basis the software products that are each aimed at solving a certain scope of tasks (CFT-Bank – automation of core banking activity, CFT-Retail Bank – retail customer servicing operations, CFT-Management Accounting – analytical accounting and reporting, strategic bank management, etc.). 

Thus Platform 1 provides centralized storage of the main data and "faultless" operation of integrated information systems. Different alternatives of Platform 1 based solutions are possible for support of the bank business of any size and area of activity. 

Wide Functionality of Platform 1 Based Systems

Software solutions implemented on the basis of Platform 1 provide wide functional coverage of the relevant field and flexible opportunities for creation and configuring of new financial products.

Fundamental for Platform 1 based systems is the concept of constant development and flexible increase of functionality due to financial business Applications. 

BASIC STRUCTURAL PRINCIPLES  

Integration with Third Party Components

A universal gateway for export/import of data in various formats is implemented in the basic part of Platform 1, which allows integrating with external applications, processing services and information systems. 

Centralized Data Model

The information storage system of Platform 1 is based on a single database, which provides full integration at the level of data storage in Platform 1 based software solutions. Using a single warehouse at performance of any operations in the system allows working with all information accumulated in it.

SECURITY SYSTEM ORGANIZATION 

Provision of Logical Data Integrity

Data integrity is warranted by DBMS mechanisms. Banking information consistency is provided by the fact that data can be modified in the system only using registered operations, and direct access to DBMS tables is denied for users. 

Management of User Operation Mode

User operation mode and password generation and changing rules are determined by a system utility program, which is part of Oracle DBMS.

Determination of User Information Access Rights  

The access control system in Platform 1 based solutions is an add-on for Oracle DBMS access control system. It is developed based on the following principles:
 

1. Provision of the required level of flexibility and detailing of control of user access to the system information resources. For these purposes each banking business element (operation, report, data view table, etc.) has an ID number and can be appointed to a user individually. If a group of users has the same rights, they are included in one functional group;
2. Implementation of the access system on the part of the server, so that users cannot access the information resources of Platform 1 "bypassing" the access control system, using the software for work with Oracle DBMS which is different from the Platform 1 workstation.

 
System Data Change Logs

User actions in the system are audited in the following logs:
 

1. Operation execution log. Any action on modification can be recorded in the log if the banking model administrator marks it as required for logging;
2. User right allocation;
3. Detail changes. Any of the banking system details can be determined as logged. In this case all history of changes of this detail is recorded;
4. Object status change history, first of all for payment documents. Logs are completed automatically by respective system functions. Users whose actions are logged cannot delete records from logs. All logs have a logging indicator (or level).

 
Use of Special Information Security Facilities 

1. Cryptographic protection of information transmitted via public data transmission channels. Opportunity to protect internal banking documents with EDS (EDM system).
2. Use of customer ID cards.
3. Opportunity of flexible approach, individual solutions and recommendations for arrangement of protected document flow in accordance with the needs of a specific bank.

 
Electronic and Digital Signature  

For application of electronic and digital signature (EDS) facilities Platform 1 includes Electronic Document Management (EDM) system. EDM system is the second loop of financial information protection which provides elimination of the risk of excessive use by the Access Administrator and Application Model Administrator. 

EDS system operates in Platform 1 on the basis of EDM Regulations, which describes the conditions of document passing through life cycle stages – changes of document status during its processing. A document can pass to each next stage only if it has a required and sufficient number of EDS of the participants of the document flow. 

During operation with documents, EDM system generates a user (operator / controller / accountant) EDS based on the contents of the document and the secret user key. EDS warrants not only the determination of the document authorship but also the confirmation of a user right for performance of certain actions in the System: document creation, control, document posting.

Platform 2 MCA

Platform 2 МСА (Mission Critical Application) is the latest development of CFT. New generation technological platform for development and use of CRITICAL banking applications.  

With all the functionality of Platform 1, Platform 2MCA (due to its 3-level architecture) provides to the bank remarkable productivity, unlimited scalability and the market's best value for money.  

ARCHITECTURAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL BENEFITS 

Benefits of banking systems implemented on the basis of Platform 2МСА:

• Support of all modern integration means.
• Independence of updates of the system core and application solutions management system.
• Unlimited opportunities in growth of productivity ("as much as required").
• Reliability: securing the work of critical applications on the level that is maximally close to 24х7 format.

Unlimited Scalability

The three-level architecture of Platform 2МСА provides unlimited opportunities for scalability and centralizing. Scalability is possible both on the level of application servers and DB servers.

Division of the application logic and database has allowed scaling the system not by high-end servers but by middle-range or even lower level servers. A middle-range server is used as the database server, and the system is scaled by application servers whose total processing capacity will cost much less for the bank that a high-end server of the same capacity. 

BASIC STRUCTURAL PRINCIPLES  

Multiplatform

Independence from operating systems, potential independence from DBMS.

• Independence from application server operating systems.
• Independence from application server producers. 

Succession of CFT Platforms

For banks with installed CFT banking systems based on Platform 1, transfer to Platform 2MCA is just transmission of the application part of the systems to a new technological core.

Thus the bank will have no need for retraining of the system business users as the interface and the functionality of the systems are identical. And bank IT specialists will not have to learn new programming languages, for these purposes CFT specialists have created a PL/plus to Java compiler.

Testing of CFT-Platform 2MCA on Oracle Exadata

Testing date: first quarter of 2011
Purpose: Estimation of the productivity of CFT-Bank (Platform 2MCA) on Oracle Exadata Database Machine
Load: 30,000 simultaneously working users
Result: all tests showed successful results with a reserve of computational capacities 

Configuration of the used Oracle Exadata software and hardware system:

• Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-8;
• Oracle Exadata Storage Servers168 disk drives + 5.3 TB Smart Flash Cache;
• Oracle Linux 5.7;
•  DBMS Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.2) Enterprise Edition with options Oracle RAC and Oracle Partitioning.

Based on the testing results CFT recommends using Oracle Exadata Database Machine software and hardware system as the platform for the use of software products on the basis of Platform 1 and Platform 2MCA. 

Successful tests of Platform 2 МСА on Oracle Exadata software and hardware system are the starting point for further development of the Platform using Oracle technologies. CFT carries out regular adapting and testing of its software at Oracle Solution Center. Among the latest CFT offers is support of Oracle WebLogic Server 11g R1 application server. 

RESUME:

CFT-Platform 2MCA provides:

• Manifold increase of the total bandwidth of information systems (the average expected productivity growth is 7-fold and more);
• Increase of the system scalability with lower hardware cost*;
• Natural integration of existing business applications both among each other and with various external systems within the framework of SOA;
• Achievement of maximum effect from centralizing the bank information and technological flows.

* For operation with 5,000 users a bank can use a 32-core database server which costs $ 300 K instead of a 128-core high-end server which costs $3 million.

Testing of CFT-Platform 2MCA on Oracle SPARC SuperCluster T4-4 

Testing date: third quarter of 2012
Purpose: Estimation of the productivity of CFT-Bank (Platform 2MCA version 7.3.0.4) on Oracle SPARC SuperCluster T4-4
Load: 36,000 simultaneously working users
Result: all tests showed successful results with a reserve of computational capacities 

Configuration of the software and hardware system used  

1. DB server Oracle SPARC SuperCluster T4-4 Full Rack:

• 4 * Oracle SPARC T4-4 compute nodes;
• Oracle Exadata Storage Servers (36 disk drives) + Exadata Storage Expansion Rack X3-2 Full Rack (216 disk drives);
• Oracle Solaris 11;
• DBMS Oracle 11g Release 2 Enterprise Edition with options Oracle RAC and Oracle Partitioning;
• Oracle VM for SPARC v2.2.

2. Oracle Exalogic X2-2 Full Rack application server

• 30 * Exalogic compute nodes;
• Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Software;
• Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition 11g.

Based on the testing results CFT recommends using Oracle SPARC SuperCluster software and hardware system as the platform for the use of software products on the basis of Platform 1 and Platform 2MCA.​​​​​