13 minute read
PARTNERS PROGRAMME
Interview by Stéphane Etienne, Hypallages
EBRC AND THE UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG: A WINNING PARTNERSHIP
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High service availability, 120 computer racks that can accommodate up to 5,000 servers, a usable surface area of 450 m²: the Data Center of the University of Strasbourg is the result of an ambitious project initiated in 2013. This state-of-the-art infrastructure, which has been operational since November 2019, aims at providing the university and its institutional and academic partners with a unique hosting facility for their IT equipment and data. The Real Estate Department and the Digital Department called upon EBRC to design and build this highly technical space. Romaric David, Head of the Data Center at the University of Strasbourg, recounts the background of this successful partnership.
— A PARTNERSHIP FORGED FROM THE OUTSET
OF THE PROJECT
“Given that this was a large-scale project and that it will likely remain the only one of its kind, the University of Strasbourg wanted to get the best help possible and enlisted the advice of a Data Center expert. We needed a partner with both certifications and concrete references who could provide us with practical feedback. For a project to be successful, you have to pay attention to a thousand details and we did not have enough experience in this area. EBRC immediately
impressed us with the professionalism of its teams and its multiple certifications. In particular, it is the only company in the world to have three Tier IV Data Centers certified by Uptime Institute. For us, this was undoubtedly a guarantee of quality.” “EBRC has virtually been involved in the project from the outset. The project was carried out in two phases. During the construction phase, the company provided support to the Real Estate Department in the capacity of assistant to the project owner. Practically, EBRC helped design and implement the project. It then took part in the building development phase, which was led by the Digital Department. Its methodology and its stringent requirements enabled us to check that all the functionalities provided for in the specifications were present and in perfect working order.”
— A SECURE, REDUNDANT, POWERFUL AND
GREEN DATA CENTER
“After six years of intensive work, we are more than satisfied with the result. Although not officially certified, our Data Center meets the highest international standards in terms of security, redundancy and resilience. Access control is fully secured and all equipment is duplicated as set out in Uptime Institute’s Tier III level requirements, ensuring less than 1.6 hours of downtime per year. In addition to its enormous hosting capacity, our Data Center stands out as having an above-average electrical density. It is powered by two transformer stations that are entirely independent of each other. It has a power of 1.2 megawatts, i.e. an average of 10kW per computer bay with a peak of up to 25-30 kW for some of them. Our research units within the university thus have the necessary capacity for a highperformance computing centre (HPC), which is particularly energy-intensive. This electrical system, supplemented by very high-efficiency inverters and two generators that are immediately operational when needed, was indispensable.” “Another added value provided by the project is its emphasis on eco-responsibility. Our Data Center is one of the most energy-efficient in France, with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.25. The European Commission has also certified that our Data Center meets the criteria of the Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency, meeting 190 of the 200 criteria, earning it a European Code of Conduct Award in 2019.” “This award was obtained thanks to the dual innovation of hot and cold air flow containment for the racks in the computer rooms, combined with geothermal energy used for heat exchanges. To achieve this, two wells were drilled in order to capture water from the water table below the building which is then used to cool the Data Center. The heat produced by the IT equipment is recovered by a heat pump and is used to heat part of the campus, thus optimizing energy use and reducing the carbon footprint.”
— IN THE END, A TOTAL SUCCESS
“Today, after only a few months of operation, we are already reaping the benefits. Our site will soon become one of the regional Data Centers for higher education and research that are in the process of receiving certification. We receive many requests for hosting, not only from the teaching and research world, which is our main target audience, but also from teaching hospitals, engineering schools in Alsace and the private sector. The interest garnered from the private sector is the best proof that our Data Center is ultimately a success story, particularly as a result of our partnership with EBRC.”
Photo credit: University of Strasbourg
Christophe Bourbier CEO - Limonetik
Photo credit: Limonetik
Interview by Stéphane Etienne, Hypallages
LIMONETIK, A REFERENCE IN THE WORLD OF DIGITAL PAYMENTS
The payment industry has undergone profound changes in recent years. Online services using instantaneous and international electronic transactions have widely contributed to its development. Cash payments are gradually giving way to a multitude of virtual payment methods. However, as the payment experience becomes simpler and more integrated for customers, the back-office verification and management tasks become increasingly complex. The French company Limonetik has made this its speciality and now simplifies payment services processes in a rational way. An interview with its co-founder and CEO, Christophe Bourbier, an EBRC customer since 2012.
— In your opinion, what are the main challenges the payment industry is currently facing?
This industry has become considerably more international and complex. I will give you a simple example to illustrate my point. Let’s imagine a Chinese tourist buying a luxury bag from a major Parisian retailer and paying it with her e-wallet. The transaction is a perfectly simple one for the customer. All she has to do is display the QR code on her smartphone and have it scanned by the cashier. Behind the scene, however, the transaction is a little more difficult to manage. The money will be transferred from a Chinese account to the store’s account in Paris, and charges will be levied by the mobile payment company. Today, more than 30% of mobile transactions are cross-border transactions. Contrary to what one might think, bank cards no longer have a monopoly. Around three quarters of online transactions are now carried out using alternative payment methods such as AliPay, WeChat Pay, Apple Pay or Google Pay, to name just the best known. In total, there are more than 300 different payment methods worldwide. Therefore, both trends - cross-border payments and the increasing number of payment methods - will intensify in the coming years. This development affects all stakeholders in the value chain: Payment Service Providers (PSPs), merchants, marketplaces, purchasers, airlines and the tourism industry. They are and will increasingly be required to manage money flows from all over the world almost instantaneously using a variety of payment methods, each with its own business rules. In short, a real headache!
CASH PAYMENTS ARE GRADUALLY GIVING
WAY TO A MULTITUDE OF VIRTUAL PAYMENT METHODS.
— WHAT SOLUTION DO YOU
OFFER TO MEET THIS
GROWING COMPLEXITY?
We are one of the few payment platforms to offer a full-service solution on demand. We offer access to 185 - soon to be 250 - payment methods around the world, whether in India, the United States, South Africa or Europe. Through a single API, we offer advanced services ranging from simple processing, fund collection and the reconciliation of financial transactions through currency conversion, detailed transaction reporting, distribution of payments from an unlimited number of vendors and commission calculation. We also check the identities of all involved parties and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. In short, we ensure that international payments are child’s play for all our customers and partners. Thanks to this positioning, one of the most disruptive in the payment market, we have been able to enter into major contracts with the largest international PSPs and BtoB marketplaces. The transactions we manage grew by almost 70% per year over the last three years.
— EBRC has been your partner for more than 8 years. What attracted you to EBRC and why do you continue to trust it?
Beyond the exceptional quality of EBRC’s infrastructure, it is the expertise of the people with whom we immediately found common ground. They were direct, concrete and proactive. They reassured us and were able to provide us with support in difficult choices or negotiations. The fact that they work with many financial institutions and are PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certified was also a decisive argument for us. Over time, our partnership solidified and even expanded as a result of our desire, in 2018, to implement an ambitious CSR policy within our company. We were pleasantly surprised to find that EBRC was 100% compliant with our environmental specifications. EBRC powers its five Data Centers using entirely green energy, from wind or hydraulic power plants, and has invested heavily in energy optimisation solutions (Kyoto wheels, heat pumps, free cooling, cold corridors, etc.) which reduce energy consumption and enable the company to save more than 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Finally, what also reinforces our decision to continue working with them is their impressive production and storage capacity. Our transaction volumes have grown exponentially in recent years and all our data is hosted with them. Today, we have 1.5 billion Euros in transactions per year and we expect to reach 2 billion Euros by the end of this year. We have become a major customer for EBRC and we hope to become even more so in the future. For us, that would be the best proof of our success!
Yves Reding CEO - EBRC by four major Luxembourg-based banks (BCEE, POST Luxembourg) which joined forces to meet a new regulatory obligation, the European Payment Services Directive, better known as DSP2. It should be recalled that DSP2 is notably based on this major subject: secure communication between banks and Third Party Providers (TPPs) comprised of account aggregators and payment initiators. Banks have had to find a way to set up a system for sharing the information they hold about
Jacques Pütz
Interview by Juliette Paoli, Solutions Numériques
OPENBANKING LUXHUB: FROM DSP2 TO THE FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKETPLACE
The LuxHub start-up offers services aimed at helping banks and other electronic payment services to comply with the requirements of the EU Payment Services Directive, aka DSP2, as well as solutions to connect banking institutions and FinTech via secure APIs.
LUXHUB was created as a result of a joint initiative BGL BNP Paribas, BANQUE RAIFFEISEN and
CEO - LUXHUB customers’ payment data with TPPs in a secure manner. “In this context, banks have the same legal obligation to provide technical interfaces that allow third parties to connect with the consent of the end customer. Banks have thus become service providers, a profession which is not their own and which they have not mastered”, explained Jacques Pütz, CEO of LuxHub. They have to deal with a heavy IT legacy and slow strategy implementation.
— SIMPLIFIED COMPLIANCE
Created in 2018, this start-up succeeded “in record time”,
(less than 12 months) in making available to the financial and digital ecosystem a “by design secure” platform it precisely developed to help banks - not just the 4 that created it - and electronic money institutions comply with the requirements of these new regulations. “We are opening this platform to other entities to help them achieve compliance.” The startup is now active in 10 countries and works for 38 banks. Its first asset is obvious, summed up in this sentence from its director: “We understand our customers”. Its second asset is no less obvious: “We are audited, highly secure and monitored by regulators.” The platform is, in fact, obviously not exposed in the Public Cloud, but is hosted by Luxembourg-based European IT services operator EBRC in its Trusted Cloud Europe. The choice of EBRC is justified “because it is a Tier IV” and offers “a highly secure environment”.
— A SINGLE API AND A MARKETPLACE
Although the LUXHUB start-up offers services helping banks and other electronic payment services comply with the DSP2 requirements, it also offers solutions to connect banking institutions and Fintechs via secure APIs. “We have added value-added services around this platform”, explained the CEO. LUXHUB One is an integration layer providing access to any bank via a single API, whereas the provided bank interfaces are completely heterogeneous and lack any form of standardization. Credit institutions and third parties can thus bundle large numbers of payment accounts via this standardized API. LUXHUB will also launch its own marketplace, a kind of “Amazon for financial services”, by reusing the platform it set up. “The banker can connect and use the services of different providers”. Banks will be able to consult a catalogue of FinTech and RegTech companies and test their services. The advantage: a single connection and standard security. The LUXHUB Marketplace thus aims at becoming a onestop API shop for the European financial ecosystem. Moreover, LUXHUB organizes “Open Banking Parties” linking banks and third-party providers. Two events already took place in Luxembourg and the start-up plans to replicate the experience in Paris soon.
— A START-UP HONOURED WITH TWO AWARDS
In June 2019, LUXHUB was ranked the second largest open banking hub in Europe according to Innopay, at the annual conference of the Euro Banking Association. In September, it joined the list of the RegTech 100, a worldwide ranking of the 100 most innovative RegTechs. Great recognition for a start-up with 24 employees, comprising 11 different nationalities, and whose average age of 41 reveals all the experience available on-hand. The company has 38 customers and manages 2.5 million accounts. It has a presence in 10 European countries.
— MANAGING GROWTH
Its biggest challenge today is to manage its growth efficiently, according to CEO Jacques Pütz. Growth in Europe benefits from this DSP2, a single regulation, which is proving to be a driver of growth despite the constraints it imposes. One thing is certain: founded by four banks, “it will not be sold to the first one who puts money on the table,” which makes it very different from other FinTechs.
— EBRC, GUARANTEES OF SECURITY
AND RESILIENCE
“When it came to setting up the infrastructure on which to develop our activities, we chose EBRC,” said Claude Meurisse, COO of LUXHUB. “We made this choice for a variety of reasons, in particular because of EBRC’s location in Luxembourg, which meets the local data hosting requirements of certain customers, such as private banks, but also for the guarantees of security and resilience offered by an FSP specialized in the management of sensitive information. Other factors also played a role, like the fact that the company has been active for many years, which is a guarantee of stability, and the numerous certifications held by EBRC”. “I was particularly impressed by the organization and structuring of the EBRC teams during the implementation of the project,” added Jacques Pütz, CEO of LUXHUB. “As with any project, ours was subject to deviations and changes,” he added, “but the EBRC consultants demonstrated a great deal of flexibility and a great ability to listen. Throughout the project, we were able to deliver on time”. EBRC provides the ability to easily scale up. This scalability and agility enable LUXHUB to consider deploying new services, based in particular on EBRC’s Kubernetes-as-a-Service offering and the accompanying security tools. Security is a major component of LUXHUB’s products and services and the start-up can rely on EBRC and its DevSecOps approach which integrates security by design. The certifications that EBRC holds, ISO 27001 in particular, are also valuable assets for the company and its customers.
