Q&A: How Unisys’ ClearPath Forward IT Platform Can Help Financial Firms

Q&A: How Unisys’ ClearPath Forward IT Platform Can Help Financial Firms

Earlier this year, IT giant and security specialist Unisys further updated its ClearPath Forward platform. The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania company has been advancing its platform for some time and considers it the best solution to help safeguard the mission-critical operations and data of companies in areas like finance and the public sector.

Photo: Marcel Valverde of Unisys talks to Finance TnT about the company’s ClearPath Forward platform. (Credit: Unisys)

To learn more about ClearPath Forward, which was updated to its ClearPath OS 2200 operating system update in October, Finance TnT sat down to chat with Marcel Valverde and Leonardo Carissimi of Unisys.

Finance TnT: What is ClearPath Forward Dorado, and what types of companies can benefit from it the most?

Marcel Valverde: ClearPath Forward Dorado is a model of Unisys’ ClearPath Forward line of server. It is a complete IT platform environment that hosts the most demanding application workloads in the market. These servers are designed to run hundreds of workloads simultaneously, providing services for millions of users while maintaining excellent response time and aggressive service level requirements.

ClearPath Forward is also the most secure environment in the market according to National Vulnerability Database maintained by NIST (the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology). And it is known for both its higher levels of availability and resilience, and for being easy to manage with minimal staff to operate and support.

Companies that deal with “mission critical” applications are the ones that benefit the most with ClearPath Forward Servers. For example, we work with public sector companies that have to provide timely services for millions of citizens. A breach in security may cost reputation loss — and even cause national security issues.

Similarly, financial institutions that deal with hundreds of thousands of clients and huge money transactions daily can greatly benefit. In short, ClearPath Forward addresses mission critical services, helping to prevent security breaches, reputation loss, and financial losses due to unavailability.

Finance TnT: What does the new ClearPath OS 2200 operating system update provide above and beyond previous offerings?

Marcel Valverde: ClearPath OS 2200 and ClearPath MCP operational environment relate to a software stack that runs on a ClearPath Forward Server. OS 2200 and MCP are packages that include more than 100 products including: “Operational Environment,” “DataBase Manager System,” “Development Security,” and “Utilities Tools.”

New releases of those operational environments have brought continuous improvement over time. Recently, new features focus on digital transformation, offering mobile enablement and open integration that make development of composite applications easier.

OS 2200 and MCP new releases also reinforce aspects already existing, such as availability, performance, reliability, and manageability. Finally, special tools facilitate development, adopting agile developing techniques and DevOps frameworks.

Finance TnT: Today, security is on the mind of everyone in the financial industry when it comes to adding new solutions. How does Unisys ensure security with this offering?

Leonardo Carissimi: Indeed, these days, security is a number-one concern not only for IT staff but for business leaders and, more importantly, the customers. Protecting business- and customer-related data is a key challenge for any organization.

We’re also living the “Era of Digital Transformation,” in which businesses are challenged to innovate at a pace that hasn’t been seen before in history. This means the IT environments are pushed to support innovative products and services, improve customer experience, and do more with less resources and less time. And do it securely.

Unisys’ approach to security ensures the risks related to digital transformation are properly identified and managed. Cloud computing, social networking, mobility, Internet of Things, and data analytics are all tools required to support the digital transformation — but they also bring new risks to financial firms or other organizations. New data is generated — often beyond the old “corporate walls” — and needs to be protected. So, a new approach to security is required. It needs to be more dynamic and fluid — the same way the information is created, processed, transmitted, and used these days.

Our solutions to manage these risks include micro-segmentation through the stealth technology, encompassing the data protection in the data center (core network), cloud, and mobile environments. The solutions also may protect and isolate the risks of IoT environments.

We also offer state-of-the-art threat and incident detection and response — in case the worst happens, your company is able to quickly detect and react. Additionally, it provides advanced threat intelligence powered by data analytics and machine-learning capabilities to analyze social networks — and even the Dark Web — for advanced threats to prevent security incidents.

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