Polaris launches FT-Grid

Invests Rs.91 crore in setting up a separate business unit

Polaris Software Lab, has launched its FT- (financial technology) Grid, the largest cloud offering with a capacity to cater to 100 million customers (MC). The Grid will enable Polaris to offer its financial technology infrastructure and banking products on a pay-per-use (cloud) model to banks and financial institutions. It will be a ready-to-use platform with industry-standard hardware, middleware, relational database management system (RDBMS) and network connectivity components changing the face of banking globally.

Polaris has created a separate business unit and a wholly-owned subsidiary, Polaris Financial Technologies, for launching this FT-Grid. IdenTrust and IBM have partnered to provide reliable and scalable IT infrastructure for FT-Grid. The company has invested Rs.91 crore for setting up this business unit and it has housed two data centres for this purpose.

Three variants

FT-Grid will be offered in three variants and will cater to three major global markets core banking, capital markets and corporate banking. It has complete enterprise class cloud and solution with multiple features such as virtualisation, scalability, reliability, global reach, 24x7x365 support with vernacular localisation and information security.

It provides services at the customer's door step, said Arun jain, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Polaris Software, at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Jaideep Billa, Executive Vice-President, FT-Grid, said it would enable banks and financial institutions to readily access applications on a robust infrastructure, helping them avail of services on per account/branch a month or equivalent usage-based charges. It would also allow clients to avoid licence procurement and maintenance, reducing costs significantly. So far the product had been implemented in two banks, he added.

IBM would be the platform technology partner for FT-Grid. IBM's virtualisation technology would help drive down the cost of infrastructure while it would provide reliability and scalability to FT-Grid.