TECH IN 10: Westpac branches’ bandwidth boost
Westpac’s Wayne Bonett says new branch network infrastructure had improved performance and halved operating cost. (Emma Foster)
The speed and capability of technology in Westpac’s branches across Australia have been given a major boost following the full rollout of a first-of-its-kind network infrastructure.
Speaking in Westpac Wire’s latest “Tech in 10” podcast, Westpac’s head of secure network services Wayne Bonett said the bank’s new Software Defined Wide Area Network – or SD-WAN – had delivered a 10-fold increase in bandwidth, improving the performance of technology applications used by customers and employees in-branch, while halving operating costs.
Listen to the latest “Tech in 10” with Wayne Bonett:
“We've been able to calculate on average there’s a 28 per cent improvement in performance for all applications,” said Mr Bonett of the network, delivered in collaboration with nbn and Cisco.
He added that the new underlying network connectivity was a “really important part of the banks’ future capability”, particularly as it leverages more cloud services, in “the most cost effective, efficient, scalable manner”.