Taishin Holdings

The Synology FlashStation FS2017 is on par with leading storage platforms in the market in terms of system stability and technical capability, but is much more cost-effective with its all-flash storage system and flexible SSD configuration. With the FS2017 and the RX2417sas expansion unit, we were able to optimize the work efficiencies of over eight thousand employees in all our branch offices. Furthermore, the entire system not only fulfills our operating needs for the next two years, but can also easily scale up by adding the RX2417sas expansion unit to extend the service life of the system. This eliminates the hassle of data migration and management due to system changes and maximizes the benefits from the given IT budget. Zhu Qihong, Assistant Manager, Human Resources Department

The Company

Taishin Financial Holdings was founded on February 18, 2002. The businesses of Taishin and its subsidiaries include banking, securities and asset management, venture capital, and more. In 2017, Taishin International Bank, a subsidiary of Taishin Financial Holdings, won five major awards from Asian Banking & Finance, and was named as The Domestic Retail Bank of the Year – Taiwan for seven consecutive years. The Taishin International Bank continuously develops different products and services to cater to the needs of different groups of customers. Through the use of innovative technologies, it  capitalizes on opportunities to expand its financial services, so as to fulfill its role as an intelligent partner to every customer. With commitment and conscientiousness, it strives to become the leading brand in financial services in Asia Pacific region.

The Challenge

The Human Resources (HR) department is one of the key logistic support units to maintain the bank's leading edge in the market. The company aims to build an information infrastructure that would allow HR to respond quickly to the needs of over eight thousand employees, including large volumes of instant verification requests. The HR information infrastructure should ensure smooth operations of the human resource system, human resource website, as well as the online learning platform. However, with a rapid rise in digital data and services, the existing storage equipment at the department can no longer keep up with the increased workload. Under the provision of relevant laws, there are stringent requirements governing front-line service staff. The HR department is responsible for managing licenses and certificates, trainings, and other related areas. All aspects of the bank's daily operations require verification of data provided by the department. Hence, the storage facility is a key to the service qualities of all the bank's branches and to the overall financial operations of the bank.

The Solution

To continuously enhance system stability and service quality, the HR department of the Taishin International Bank began to look into replacing its existing SAS hard drives with all-flash storage equipment in early 2017. "At the beginning of our storage equipment replacement process, we wanted to purchase a traditional disk storage system from the maker of our existing storage equipment, but the cost of upgrading grossly exceeded our budget. Fortunately, we were introduced to the Synology's all-flash FlashStation FS2017 storage unit and its matching RX2417sas expansion unit under the recommendation of a dealer. This powerful combination not only satisfies our original needs within the given budget, but also surpasses our expectations with its outstanding performance, making it more competitive than the products from large-scale international manufacturers." said Zhu Qihong from the HR department of Taishin.

The Synology FS2017 storage unit is a high-performance rack-mounted NAS designed specifically for 2.5-inch SSDs. It can hold up to 24 SSDs and provides throughputs of up to 90,000 IOPS, making it optimal for applications such as movie post-productions, mail servers, virtualization platforms, as well as databases. Considering the unique characteristics of SSD and RAID, Synology specifically developed the RAID F1 to avoid the potential risk of all SSD failing simultaneously. RAID F1 distributes the workload to all SSDs according to a specially designed algorithm to raise the durability of the storage while protecting the integrity of data.

On top of Synology's exclusive RAID F1 algorithm, the HR department of the Taishin International Bank also deployed the Link Aggregation technology and replaced its original four-lane 10Gbps network with dual 20Gbps iSCSI channels. This solution successfully delivered system stability and effective performance.

The Benefits

With the migration of the core system database to the new storage platform comprising the Synology FS2017 host and the RX2417sas expansion unit, the performance and internal connection qualities have improved drastically. According to test results from the HR department, the mean number Transactions Per Second (TPS) increased in efficiency by nearly seven times. Furthermore, storage capacity increased from 2TB to 10TB with the expectation to satisfy the operating needs of the bank for the next two to three years.

According to Zhu Qihong, the convenience the FS2017 system offers for future storage expansion was an important key factor. As the current configuration is expected to meet the bank's data storage needs up to the end of 2018, it only requires the installation of additional RX2417sas expansion units to expand the storage space. This also extends the service life of the storage equipment. In this way, not only can the HR department avoid data migration and management problems – the department can also maximize the utility of their limited budget.

Taking into account the expanding digital data size, data protection, large-volume data processing, and intelligent commercial applications, the HR department plans to further expand its Synology storage equipment in order to build a high-availability cluster and achieve its goal of zero downtime. Eventually, the department hopes to provide its staff with a platform for quick inquiry and online learning, with the storage platform playing a key force in enhancing the overall competitiveness of Taishin Financial Holdings. 

Deployment plan

Recommended Models

  • FS2017
  • RX2417sas

Recommended Features

  • Overall assessment of performance, stability and setup cost surpasses products from large international manufacturers.
  • Exclusive RAID F1 algorithm and a network card that supports data rates up to 40GbE ensure data safety while delivering outstanding performance
  • High expansion flexibility to meet long-term deployment needs
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