The system’s robust security and industry-leading performance will help APLUS achieve its 24/7/365 operation objectives as online commerce heats up and companies rely on cloud applications to draw and retain customers.

As online and mobile shopping has become increasingly popular, the use of credit cards has grown in Japan, with more than 66 percent of consumers choosing this method for conducting online transactions.[1] With 80 percent enterprise hybrid cloud adoption by predicted by 2017, APLUS is working to connect cloud transactions leveraging LinuxONE.[2] The growth of international visitors spending money in the country and the emergence of FinTech firms in Japan have led to a diversification of payment methods as the local financial industry struggles to respond.

APLUS, which issues well-known credit cards such as T Card Plus, is seeking to offer leading-edge financial services by merging groups to achieve lean operation, outstanding productivity and efficiency. Choosing to update its credit card payment system with LinuxONE infrastructure, APLUS aims to leverage an advanced IT environment to supporting its business growth by helping provide near-constant uptime. In addition to updating its server architecture, APLUS has deployed IBM storage solutions to manage mission-critical data. IBM’s DS8880 mainframe attached storage solution provides integration with IBM z Systems and LinuxONE environments. For data backup APLUS utilizes a combination of IBM’s Storwize V5000 and IBM’s T3200.

LinuxONE Emperor, the industry’s most secure Linux server, APLUS is now able to comply with PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), a security standard for the credit card industry. In addition to industry-leading security, credit card processing applications require a high CPU processing ability to handle large batch processing. LinuxONE can process 2.5 billion transactions per day and delivers near-constant uptime.

“The boom in mobile and online shopping in Japan has put increasing pressure on the technology infrastructure that processes these payment transactions,” said Tatsuro Unemori, Managing Executive Officer and Chief Officer of Information Technology Group, APLUS. “By making the move to IBM LinuxONE, we hope to deliver an improved customer experience through increased performance and availability.”