Primerica selects the new IBM zEnterprise mainframe for more intellectual IT infrastructure

The IBM corporation announced in May, 2011 that Primerica, Inc., the independent company with specialization in the field of marketing of financial services, and about more than 2.4 million personal accounts of clients, selected the new IBM zEnterprise 196 mainframe for accomplishment of the main business applications from North America. The new zEnterprise supporting work of the Linux and zOS operating systems allows to reduce time necessary for agents of Primerica for opening of insurance and other types of financial accounts, from several days to several minutes, giving to agents the chance to receive required records of clients on the smartphones directly from the mainframe.

Using new zEnterprise as the primary server, Primerica developed complete infrastructure based on systems optimized for certain workloads. The new mainframe manages data on agents and clients, powers of attorney, life insurance policies and financial accounts. On the IBM Power Systems systems the program IBM Websphere Application Server application server is executed. Along with it, Primerica uses the IBM System x servers for broadcasting to agents of the training video content.

The new zEnterprise 196 system of Primerica company which is selected for upgrade of the existing infrastructure based on the z9 mainframe contains a number of the microprocessors selected for accomplishment of the zOS operating system and also dedicated microprocessors, such as System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) for support of workloads of the database, and Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) for support of workloads of Linux. These microprocessors work nearly 100% quicker, than chips which Primerica used in the z9 mainframe.

"The essential gain in the capacity of the new zEnterprise 196 mainframe – in particular, its high-speed performance leading in the industry thanks to which we selected it as replacement of z9 – will allow us to continue expansion of our business. Besides, we are ready to take advantage of the latest, the zEnterprise System functions expected in the nearest future, including an ability to manage workloads on the separate POWER and System x servers as though they were the mainframe. It will in addition simplify our IT architecture and will cut down expenses. Using zEnterprise, the open platform, infrastructure smoothly moved to a new level. It helps us as company which went public recently, to conform to market demands" — David Wade, the Chief information officer of Primerica company noted.

At the end of last year the Citigroup finance corporation selected the subsidiary company Primerica in independent organization through the procedure of initial public placement of actions at the exchange (IPO). This new zEnterprise System system is the 19th mainframe of IBM purchased by Primerica for all the 30-year history.

"In the last six months of sale of mainframes increased with the highest rate of growth rate for the last six years, in many respects thanks to release of the zEnterprise system — Tom Rosamilia, the general manager of the IBM Power and z Systems business directions emphasized. — Clients like Primerica take advantages of the transition to zEnterprise offering basic change of how data processing centers are controlled. Z196 system is the fastest server of the corporate level in the world, and represents huge jump forward in performance".