Bank collaborates with Itential to improve automation testing

This blog discusses a challenge faced by a major banking client in the financial services sector regarding the testing of automation in their infrastructure. The insights provided are pertinent for IT decision-makers looking to balance operational risk with necessary advancements in automation.

Overview of the Challenge

The banking institution required a method to safely test and enhance their production automation. They faced limitations as the only time to conduct full-scale testing was during their critical live production maintenance windows, which presented high stakes and no room for error.

Solution Implementation

Itential collaborated with the bank to establish a temporary testing environment that closely resembled their production setup. This environment enabled safe performance testing and evaluation of enhancements before implementation in live operations.

Temporary Testing Environment

Utilizing a combination of AWS EC2 instances and Itential's on-premises (on-prem) labs, they created a scalable model for effective testing and configuration adjustments. This approach provided a realistic simulation of the bank's existing hardware and network structure.

Enhancement Evaluation

The solution included simulating network devices with Containerlab, which allowed for accurate behavior testing without the reliance on physical infrastructure. Itential explored various potential improvements for the automation’s efficiency, assessing their effects on speed and reliability.

Results Achieved

The implementation of this systematic approach led to an increase in confidence regarding the optimization of automation tasks. Key recommendations from Itential improved automation behavior stability and contributed to an estimated runtime reduction of approximately 10% during maintenance periods.

This case illustrates the effectiveness of establishing dynamic testing environments in achieving reliable automation solutions within regulated industries. This blog signals a timely, fact-based summary of the original post.