East Coast Processing Center Configured to Handle Future of Digital
Commerce with Greater Capacity, Reliability and Security; Enhanced with
New Operating System
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 2009--
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), a global payments technology company, today
announced the opening of a new global data processing center in North
America. Concurrently, Visa implemented several IT enhancements, chief
among them the implementation of a new operating system that underpins
VisaNet, its global transaction processing network.
Together, these technology investments further enhance the flexibility,
reliability and scale of VisaNet, and increase Visa’s ability to process
the ever-growing number of increasingly complex electronic payments
around the world, which now account for 33 percent of global consumer
spending. 1
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Greater reliability, capacity - The opening of the new center is a key
milestone in Visa’s multi-year technology upgrade, that results in
Visa now having two synchronized, secure and reliable data centers in
North America, each capable of carrying Visa’s entire global payments
volume in the event of a natural disaster or systems outage. Instant
fail-over technology between Visa data centers around the globe
ensures the 5-nine level of uninterrupted service that cardholders,
merchants, governments and financial institutions have come to expect
from Visa.
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New operating system – Developed in partnership with IBM, the system,
known as z™ Transaction Processing Facility (z/TPF), is a 64-bit
operating system that allows more information to be manipulated at
once and perform more complex processing functions in milliseconds.
Importantly, this paves the way for Visa to deliver new,
information-intensive applications such as advanced fraud analysis,
and mobile payments and services.
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Enhanced security - This centralized processing structure, combined
with the new operating system, provides Visa with a comprehensive view
into the global payment system, leading to high levels of intelligence
around spending patterns, enabling Visa to provide a broad range of
information-based services, and improving the company’s ability to
detect and prevent fraud in near real-time.
“Visa’s commitment to continuous technology upgrades differentiates us
from competitors and helps Visa play a key role in facilitating the
migration to electronic payments. Few people recognize the critical role
VisaNet plays in supporting our extensive brand acceptance, securing our
products and facilitating payment innovation,” said
Mike Dreyer
, Chief
Information Officer, Visa Inc. “As we activate our second new data
center in four years and complete a transition to the latest information
technology, we are laying the foundation for the future of Visa payments
and related services.”
Data Center Expands Global Capacity, Flexibility
Located in the Eastern United States, Visa’s new data center is a
370,000 square foot, state-of-art facility architected to support
multiple authorization engines and process hundreds of millions of
transactions each day. With more than 140,000 square feet of raised
floor space the center houses some of the payments industry’s most
advanced payment processing services and is capable of handling more
than 10,000 transaction messages per second.
Visa’s new processing center completes a global network of four data
centers on three continents connecting more than 16,000 financial
institutions, and millions of merchants and processing partners through
more than 1,600 network endpoints around the world. For the four
quarters ended June 30, 2009, Visa’s total volume was nearly $4.3
trillion dollars. With the growing worldwide migration away from cash
and checks and towards electronic payments being fueled by new merchant
acceptance locations, new products like mobile payments and prepaid, and
new services like money transfer, and mobile alerts and notifications,
the volume and complexity of Visa transactions are expected to grow.
New Operating System Boosts Visa’s Processing Power
Beyond its new data center, Visa has also recently implemented a new
operating system to enhance the processing capabilities of its
authorization platform, the Visa Integrated Payment platform (VIP). Visa
selected the new IBM System z™ Transaction Processing Facility (z/TPF),
one of the most advanced operating systems in the world for handling
transaction-based computing tasks. The system is specifically designed
for ultra high capacity and high-availability, and for systems designed
for rapid expansion needed to handle high peak periods or spikes of
transaction activity.
Visa partnered with IBM on the implementation of z/TPF and provided
input on key operating system features to ensure seamless integration
with Visa’s payment processing applications. Visa is the first large
company to implement z/TPF.
"The ability to provide a business platform that delivers a predictable
and dynamic environment for increased transaction volume is crucial to
success in commerce today," said
Mark Anzani
, IBM VP and chief
technology officer for System Z. "Visa has raised the standard for
future transactions processing by tapping the reliability and security
of the new Z10 mainframe and the power of the new z/TPF software to
connect an ever-increasing number of merchants, banks and consumers. ”
Annual VisaNet Stress Test Sets New Record
The new data center began processing transactions immediately following
Visa’s annual “stress testing” of its network. The testing is designed
to simulate extremely heavy transaction loads, well beyond those
expected at the height of the holiday shopping season, which is Visa’s
busiest. 2
The stress test, conducted in an IBM facility configured to match an
operational Visa data center, confirmed that as currently configured,
VisaNet has more than sufficient capacity and processing power to
support the busiest hour of the busiest day projected for the year, even
if an entire data center was to go offline.
Annual Software Update
In October, as part of its semiannual software update, Visa completed
the upgrade of its global payment platform, as well as introducing a
number of advanced processing capabilities. For this latest update, Visa
programmers, engineers and testers have invested more than 85,000 labor
hours to create and incorporate upgrades to VisaNet. That includes the
addition of several new currencies to the 175 for which Visa already
processes transactions.
As with past updates, these significant system changes and improvements
were made while VisaNet remained fully operational, ensuring that
cardholders, merchants and financial institutions could continue to rely
on Visa to process their transactions.
Visa’s software updates improve the network in crucial areas such as
security while continually adding the technology to support the growth
and complexity of electronic payments. These include the development of
information-based services that help financial institutions provide more
value to their cardholders and increase loyalty; provide ways for
businesses to use Visa to maintain greater control and transparency over
card spending; and help governments deliver benefits with more
efficiency and accountability.
About Visa
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers,
businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200
countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency.
Underpinning digital currency is the world’s most advanced processing
network—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 10,000
transactions a second, with fraud protection for consumers and
guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue
cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s
innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to
offer consumers more choices: Pay now with debit, ahead of time with
prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.
1 Source: Global Insight, Euromonitor International, SEC
Filings, Nilson Report issue number 880 and 915, and analysis by
Visa Insights
2 2008 VisaNet Peak Message Rate: 8,442 transaction messages
per second sustained average over a one hour period
Source: Visa Inc.
Visa Inc.
Elvira Swanson, 415-932-2564
globalmedia@visa.com