Overview
In the framework of our partnership with IBM, SBS collaborated with IBM Client Engineering and a leading European banking client to assess the performance gains delivered by the new IBM z17 processor on mission-critical banking workloads.
Benchmarking Real-World Banking Operations
The joint benchmark focused on two SBS solutions:
- SBS Account Management for batch processing (interest calculations, account valuation, financial operations)
- SBS Extensive Payment Engine for high-volume transactional processing (domestic, European, and international payments)
Both workloads were executed on IBM z16 and IBM z17 systems, under identical z/OS environments and with unchanged application binaries, ensuring a fair and consistent comparison.
Tangible Benefits for Banking Customers
The results demonstrate clear and measurable performance improvements with IBM z17:
- Batch processing: 9.3% reduction in CPU time and 6% faster elapsed time
- Transactional processing: 16.5% reduction in CPU time and 20.5% faster average payment processing time
- Mixed workload (batch + TP): 16% reduction in overall CPU time and 26% faster payment execution
These gains illustrate the ability of z17 to handle workload peaks, improve operational agility, and support increased transaction volumes (up to +10%) while maintaining strict service-level agreements.
Empowering People, Enhancing TCO
The project combined deep expertise in COBOL, CICS, IMS, and Db2 from SBS teams with the technical excellence of IBM engineers. Leveraging modern monitoring tools such as Grafana and Prometheus, the teams enhanced transparency, enabled autonomous analysis, and accelerated skills development for emerging talent.
By reducing CPU consumption and accelerating core banking operations, the IBM z17 combined with SBS solutions help to optimize total cost of ownership for our mutual customers.
Disclaimer
These results reflect tests performed on specific z/OS environments with IBM z16 and z17 systems configured according to the banking partner’s setup. Performance outcomes may vary in other contexts, hardware, or configurations. The IBM reference for IBM Z system performance is documented in LSPR.