China's biggest bank makes switch to Linux
China's biggest bank plans to deploy Linux on servers across its network of 20,000 national branches in a project that may be the biggest Linux deployment yet seen in China, according to an executive involved with the deal.
Under the terms of an agreement announced Thursday, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) plans to gradually roll out Turbolinux's Turbolinux 7 DataServer operating system for all of its front-end banking operations over a three-year period. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
What makes this deal special is its size. With 5.3 trillion renminbi (US$640 billion) in total assets, ICBC is China's biggest bank, serving 100 million individuals and 8.1 million corporate accounts at more than 20,000 branch offices across China. When the project is completed, many of ICBC's 390,000 employees will be accessing applications hosted on Linux servers on a daily basis.
