Data Centre and Change Management Quiz

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Questions and Answers

What is the primary purpose of an enterprise service bus (ESB) in digital banking architecture?

To centralize customer service

To analyze operational costs

To increase marketing reach

To support real-time event processing (correct)

What must be considered when deciding on channels for digital banking services?

Only the potential revenue of the channels

The historical performance of channels

The appropriateness of channels for product/service suit (correct)

Customer convenience above all

Which of the following is NOT a key component of digital banking enterprise architecture?

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

Business Process Management (BPM) integration

Operational Data Store (ODS)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (correct)

What drives the need for better event processing in digital banking?

Competitive forces Signup and view all the answers

What is a critical outcome of using real-time event-driven architecture in digital banking?

It makes informed decisions faster Signup and view all the answers

What is the main function of the operational systems layer in a digital banking architecture?

To serve as the runtime environment for applications Signup and view all the answers

Which layer specifically handles aspects like security, availability, and performance within a digital banking architecture?

Quality of service Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the governance layer in the context of enterprise architecture?

To establish IT strategy and operational models Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes the integration layer's function?

To facilitate the connection of different application protocols and data Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary role of the services layer in loan processing applications?

To support the development and execution of required services Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary responsibility of solution architects?

Develop a detailed solution architecture for a single system/application Signup and view all the answers

What is a common reason developers are not given access to production environments?

They could change and introduce illegal code Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes high availability in application architecture?

Redundant systems that can take over automatically Signup and view all the answers

What distinguishes disaster recovery (DR) from high availability?

DR focuses on entire data centers rather than individual applications Signup and view all the answers

What role does the platform group play in the infrastructure specialists?

Takes care of the infrastructure Signup and view all the answers

What does horizontal scaling in application architecture involve?

Adding additional instances of application servers Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a typical concern regarding data centers?

Compliance Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following customer types is NOT typically classified within the banking industry?

Commercial agriculture banking Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of the operational systems layer in an SOA solution?

To capture new and existing organizational infrastructure Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following elements is NOT typically included in the operational systems layer?

Service realization components Signup and view all the answers

How does the service component layer support business flexibility?

By providing an enforcement point for service realization Signup and view all the answers

What approach does the service component layer promote for IT flexibility?

Decoupling by hiding volatile implementation details Signup and view all the answers

What defines a REST service as per the content provided?

A schema that specifies resource and representation details Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT considered an asset to support the functionality of the service in an SOA?

User training programs Signup and view all the answers

What type of systems are categorized under the operational systems layer?

Existing transaction processing systems Signup and view all the answers

Which layer of the SOA solution is responsible for the 'realization' of the service?

Service component layer Signup and view all the answers

What is one of the main components of the back office in digital banking enterprise architecture?

Run the Bank Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of implementing redundancies in the data center?

To maintain continuous uptime Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a type of change that requires prior approval by the Change Management Committee?

User training sessions Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of incident management meetings in the back office?

To follow up on production incidents Signup and view all the answers

Which security mechanism is mentioned as a way to protect access to the data center?

Two-Factor Authentication Signup and view all the answers

What is the consequence of data center outages as mentioned?

Penalty by regulatory bodies Signup and view all the answers

When are changes to production systems typically scheduled?

On weekends Signup and view all the answers

What is one of the types of metrics tracked in incident management?

Metrics by application/channel Signup and view all the answers

Which versioning team has access to all network environments?

Change Team Signup and view all the answers

What is emphasized as a main goal in the incident management process?

Prevention of incidences Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Data Centre

Data center outages impact bank's reputation and result in regulatory penalties
Redundancies at multiple levels ensure 24/7 uptime, eliminating single points of failure
Redundancies include:
- Load balanced, high availability servers, active-active
- Backup networks, incoming high voltage power, air-conditioning compressors
- Disaster recovery (backup) DC
Physical security measures include:
- Two-factor authentication (2FA)
- Authorized access

Change Management

Any change to production systems requires prior approval from the Change Management Committee (typically the Data Centre head)
Changes are scheduled on weekends, avoiding regulatory reporting periods
Types of changes include:
- New application systems, OS patching, DB patching, network firewall rules, performance tuning, changing of cables
Application versioning is managed by the Change Team, who have access to all network environments, including:
- Development (DEV)
- System Integration Testing (SIT)
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
- Production (PROD)

Incident Management

Weekly meetings are held to follow up on production incidents, emphasizing prevention
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used to reduce incidents
Metrics are tracked and managed:
- By platform - network/server
- By application/channel - e.g. solution architects develop detailed solution architecture for a single system/application

High Availability

High availability is ensured through horizontal scaling, which involves multiple instances of an application server and session replication between them.
Multiple database servers are also used, along with a load balancer to ensure that if one instance goes down, others continue running
This is different from disaster recovery (DR) because DR focuses on the entire data center, whereas high availability focuses on specific applications

Enterprise Platforms

The largest platform is the enterprise platform.
The most detailed platform is the solution platform.

Bank Customers

There are four main types of bank customers:
- Retail
- Corporate and institutional
- Private banking
- Investment and capital

Front, Middle, and Back Office

Front Office: interacts directly with customers
Middle Office: supports the Front Office by managing risk, compliance, and operations
Back Office: provides support services, including technology, finance, and human resources

Realtime Event-Driven

Real-time event-driven systems are designed to be more agile in service delivery and more predictive.
The key is to make informed decisions faster.

SOA Layers

Operational Systems Layer (most bottom layer):
- Captures existing and new organizational infrastructure, including actors, needed to support the SOA solution.
- Includes all infrastructure to run the SOA and its components, including hosting of underlying systems components.
- Contains all assets needed to support service functionality, including custom or packaged application assets, new services, composed or orchestrated services, and infrastructure services.
- Includes existing monolithic custom applications, legacy applications and systems, transaction processing systems, databases, packaged applications/solutions (ERP and CRM), and core banking systems.
Service Component Layer:
- Contains software components that provide an implementation for a service or operation on a service.
- Provides an enforcement point for service quality and SLAs.
- Enables business flexibility by supporting the functional implementation of IT flexible services, their composition, and layering.
- Strengthens decoupling by hiding volatile implementation details from consumers.
Service Layer:
- Defines the services required to support a specific application, such as a loan processing application.
Component Layer:
- Contains software components that support the realization and implementation of services.
Operational Systems Layer:
- Represents the actual runtime environment where components, legacy systems, back-end applications, and packaged applications reside and run.

Cross-Cutting Vertical Layers

Integration Layer: facilitates platform integration, data integration, service integration, and application integration, leading to enterprise application integration across B2B and B2C interactions.
Quality of Service Layer: ensures the quality of service parameters, including security, availability, and performance, based on required SLAs and OLAs.
Informational Layer: provides business information.
Governance Layer: aligns each horizontal layer with the IT strategy to achieve the required operating and capability model.

TOGAF - The Open Group Architecture Framework

TOGAF is a widely adopted architecture framework.

Loan Origination Example Using SOA

This example demonstrates how SOA layers can be applied to a real-world scenario like loan origination.

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Description

Test your knowledge on data centre operations and change management protocols. This quiz covers important concepts including redundancy, physical security measures, and the process required for changes in production systems. Ensure your understanding of best practices and regulatory considerations in data management.