Bank Leumi deployed MySQL Enterprise Edition to expedite software projects by boosting the security, performance, and availability of its critical applications.
Introduction & Background
Leumi is Israel’s oldest banking institution and one of the largest financial corporations in the Middle East. Initially established in London in 1902, Bank Leumi now operates over 250 branches across Israel and maintains a global presence with offices in key financial hubs.
Having invested substantial resources over the past decade in developing and improving its technological capabilities, Leumi currently leads Israel’s digital banking sector, providing a comprehensive range of advanced online services that cater to a diverse clientele, from households to multinational corporations.
Business Challenges & Goals
Bank Leumi works with a variety of databases. It previously used MySQL Community Edition for its process management software and several financial and auxiliary applications.
However, the bank faced compliance challenges, as the MySQL Community Edition lacked the essential security and auditing features needed to meet the requirements set by the bank’s cybersecurity and risk management departments as well as external regulatory bodies.
Database monitoring was extremely limited, making it difficult for the bank’s database team to identify and address issues proactively. This frequently resulted in system bottlenecks, leading to complaints from end users about application performance.
Bank Leumi’s third-party high-availability solution was cumbersome to maintain, unsupported, and difficult to monitor. Furthermore, the bank’s backup tool was slow and outdated, posing a risk to data integrity and availability in the event of a failure.
Due to the limitations in database support, security, and monitoring, the bank was also unable to use MySQL Community Edition for new software projects, hindering its innovation and time to market.
Business Results & Metrics
Bank Leumi streamlined business processes, bolstered database security, improved application performance and availability, and achieved full regulatory compliance by upgrading from MySQL Community Edition to MySQL Enterprise Edition.
Leumi significantly strengthened its security posture with MySQL Enterprise Edition, meeting the stringent requirements set by the bank’s cybersecurity, architecture, and risk management departments, and ensuring compliance with financial industry standards. The advanced security features, including MySQL Enterprise Audit, Kerberos authentication, and support for TLS 1.2 encryption, have also enabled the bank to expedite software projects by providing a highly secure and compliant database environment.
“MySQL Enterprise Edition has broadened our database options for new projects thanks to its robust security features, cost-effectiveness, and strong support infrastructure compared to other database alternatives. Previously unthinkable, MySQL now offers us a compelling choice for project database needs across the bank," said Evgeny Alexandrovich.
Using MySQL Enterprise Monitor, Leumi’s database team now has comprehensive real-time insights into database performance for critical applications, including the bank’s process management platform, internal video software, Know Your Customer (KYC) system, and a third-party loan solution. With visibility previously limited to basic memory and CPU usage, Leumi now benefits from detailed query analysis and real-time dashboards, enabling effective database management, performance optimization, and smooth business operations.
Bank Leumi achieved substantial improvements in system availability by migrating to a MySQL InnoDB Cluster with MySQL Router, including automated database failover and failback processes, and uninterrupted service during maintenance and hardware issues. This has significantly enhanced the reliability of the bank’s critical applications, ensuring Leumi continues its leading position in providing advanced products and services via digital channels.
By leveraging the Thread Pool plugin from MySQL Enterprise Edition, Leumi considerably enhanced the performance of its process management platform, ServiceNow, which operates on a 4TB database. Previously challenged by the volume of concurrent connections and user load, Leumi now optimizes thread and connection reuse, resulting in seamless banking operations and improved user experience. “MySQL Enterprise Edition has accelerated response times, resulting in a drastic reduction in the number of complaints from our end users regarding application and database issues,” commented Evgeny Alexandrovich.
Bank Leumi revolutionized its backup procedures by integrating MySQL Enterprise Backup with its newly acquired CommVault solution, shortening backup times, increasing backup reliability, and safeguarding data integrity and availability.
Applying patches and upgrades have now become straightforward tasks, enabling Leumi’s database team to quickly and effectively implement updates across all environments to minimize potential vulnerabilities. MySQL Enterprise Edition’s ease of use ensures minimal disruption to operations, facilitates agile development practices, and contributes to improved productivity within the bank.
Why MySQL Enterprise Edition?
Bank Leumi chose MySQL Enterprise Edition primarily because of its advanced security features, comprehensive support, and cost-effectiveness. The decision was part of a strategic shift to enhance database reliability and performance across critical banking applications.
MySQL Enterprise Edition emerged as the most compelling option among various database solutions used by the bank, providing the comprehensive tools necessary to meet strict compliance requirements and support new projects.
“After a thorough evaluation we found that MySQL Enterprise Edition offers unparalleled support, fully compliant security, high availability, and excellent performance, making it an indispensable part of our database infrastructure,” Evgeny Alexandrovich said.
Implementation
Bank Leumi successfully upgraded its database infrastructure from MySQL Community Edition to MySQL Enterprise Edition with remarkable ease and efficiency, experiencing no errors or performance degradation, and requiring no coding changes.
“The technical migration was extremely easy and smooth for both production and non-production environments, which exceeded our expectations,” Evgeny Alexandrovich concluded.
Next Steps
Bank Leumi is currently finishing the migration of two small applications to MySQL Enterprise edition, after which it intends to expand its integration with Active Directory, and explore additional MySQL security features including Transparent Data Encryption, MySQL Enterprise Encryption, and MySQL Enterprise Authentication.