Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is the largest of China's "Big Four" state-owned commercial banks, and also the largest bank in the world in terms of market value. ICBC has 170 million individual customers and 2.72 million corporate customers, with online banking users numbering 50 million. During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, about 500,000 overseas visitors and one million domestic travelers  were expected in Beijing. ICBC's self-serve terminals, including POSs and ATMs, covered 98 percent of the core Games venues areas in the city.

· Customer:                   Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)

· Vertical:                      Financial Services

· F5 Solution:                F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager
                                      F5 BIG-IP WebAccelerator
                                      F5 premium 24x7 service and Chinese language technical support
                                      F5 hardware backup and Technical Account Management service

“Partnering with F5 enabled the bank to provide the best technology and services to its customers and future-proof its network for the challenges and opportunities to come."
-- Ding Zhe, General Manager of Security and Applications Digital China (F5 partner for project)

Simplified System – Deploying F5 solutions enabled ICBC to simplify its IT system and network while improving the user experience for its online banking customers.

Optimized HTTP traffic – According to ICBC’s tests, BIG-IP WebAccelerator optimized and accelerated user access to both static and dynamic web pages by a significant 40 percent

Consistent and satisfactory user experience – Upgrading its network and systems ahead of the Beijing 2008 Games enabled ICBC to prepare for the spike in network traffic and online banking activity during the event.

Upgraded service level – F5's 24x7 technical support, hardware backups, and TAM management services also gave ICBC the assurance of the fastest response time possible for any emergencies.

Case Study:  http://www.f5.com/pdf/case-studies/icbc-cs.pdf