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100% MPLS WAN coverage improves Laxmi Vilas Bank branch connectivity

Yuga Chaudhari, Principal Correspondent
Private sector bank Laxmi Vilas Bank has rolled out its Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) implementation across its 340 Indian locations. It claims to be one of the few Indian banks to have achieved a 100% MPLS WAN architecture.

The MPLS WAN

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project began on April 1, 2010. BSNL was the technology partner, while the entire management of the system has been outsourced to Wipro. Laxmi Vilas Bank's IT team, along with its partners completed the MPLS WAN deployment within a 20 day timeframe. "Getting approvals from the management took around 15 days. So, we managed to complete this MPLS WAN project within a record time of 45 days," says Murali Nair, the chief technology officer of Laxmi Vilas Bank.

"Earlier, we were on the hub and spoke model, which created traffic issues, since most branches used to connect to the hub. With deployment of the MPLS WAN architecture, we got rid of the congestion problems," informs Nair.  Apart from this, the MPLS WAN deployment enhances application performance, which makes for better user and customer experiences, says Nair.

The bank will do away with about 21 hub locations across India, and save on maintenance and operational costs. It will also save costs by redeploying network equipment.
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According to Nair, the MPLS WAN architecture will help the bank save up to 60% of the operational costs incurred in managing networking equipment. Also, the MPLS WAN will reduce downtime earlier associated with the hub and spoke WAN model. "The bank will do away with about 21 hub locations across India, and save on the maintenance and operational cost of these hubs. We will also be able to save costs by redeploying network equipment at these centers to other centers.  

The IT team at Laxmi Vilas bank initially had to face a challenge of convincing the management. However, the team made presentations about the advantages of MPLS WAN, which eventually got a green signal from the management. With its MPLS WAN implementation, Laxmi Vilas bank claims to be the first bank based out of Tamil Nadu to complete a 100% MPLS WAN implementation. In the near future, the bank plans to look at projects such as implementation of enterprise storage systems and two factor authentication.
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