| High-Security Center Helps Facilitate Global Migration to Electronic Payments and Further Strengthens VisaNet, the World's Largest Payment System |
“We are confident OCC will enable Visa and its Member financial institutions to continue to lead the industry with a highly secure and reliable payments infrastructure and will provide the processing power for advanced services and products.”
Visa today formally announced the opening of a new transactions processing center in the United States, completing a multiyear initiative to expand the capacity of VisaNet, the global payment infrastructure connecting 21,000 Member financial institutions with more than 20 million merchant locations and 1.3 billion Visa cards worldwide. Designed to meet the most stringent security requirements in the financial services industry, the new state-of-the-art facility enables Visa and its Member financial institutions to meet future demand for electronic payments and helps to facilitate the global migration from cash and check to electronic payments.
With the opening of the new data center -- dubbed OCC for Operations Center Central -- Visa is expanding the capacity of its global payment network of high-security data centers around the world, three of which are built to stand in for other Visa processing facilities in case of a system failure or natural disaster. In the United States, VisaNet serves as the backbone for roughly one-seventh of American consumer expenditure, and experiences 20 percent growth in transaction volume annually.
"Our data centers are at the heart of Visa's brand promise to deliver secure and reliable payments for cardholders, merchants and financial institutions," said John Partridge, CEO of Inovant LLC, Visa's IT organization responsible for transaction processing and technology development. "With the opening of OCC, Visa will deliver on that promise for years to come."
The new super center will handle more than $1 trillion in annual transaction volume and was designed to meet the growing volume of credit, debit and prepaid transactions for the foreseeable future. From its confidential physical location and construction, to its security features, redundant processing systems and remote operation capabilities, OCC represents the most advanced data center design. The first transactions were processed at OCC in March 2005, and Visa expects the migration of transactions volume to OCC to continue through spring 2006.
"We know the service demands on VisaNet will expand dramatically during the next decade, as transaction volumes continue to grow at an annual rate of 20 percent," said Partridge. "We are confident OCC will enable Visa and its Member financial institutions to continue to lead the industry with a highly secure and reliable payments infrastructure and will provide the processing power for advanced services and products."
Security and technology features that set apart Visa's new data center in the payments industry include:
-- Fully redundant processing applications. For the first time since launching its electronic authorization system 35 years ago, Visa has the ability to house multiple authorization systems under one roof, providing superior fail-over technology that complements its multiple data center architecture. This "back-up within a back-up" redundant topology ensures Visa is always available and has abundant processing power necessary to meet the growing demand for electronic payments.
-- Redundant support functions. Two cooling systems, two power generators, and other dual sets of mission-critical functions support each processing engine housed in the new data center.
-- Superior security. Physical "data halls" separate mission-critical processing functions through industrial-strength firewalls. This ensures the center's ability to process transactions -- even in the event of a fire or natural disaster.
-- Advanced perimeter security. High-end security technology monitors the physical location and perimeter access to the facility.
-- State-of-the-art systems monitoring. The latest in systems management tools enable Visa engineers inside the OCC command center to not only monitor the "health" of various payment streams, but also receive advanced warning of potential trouble spots throughout the vast global payment network.
One of the highlights of the data center is its ability to remotely control other processing facilities within the Visa payment infrastructure, enabling Visa engineers at OCC to manage another data center thousands of miles away. This means that in the event of an emergency, Visa engineers can vacate a data center and switch management and operations to Visa OCC.
About Visa USA
Visa USA is the nation's leading payment brand and largest payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumers and business customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives tailored to meet their evolving needs. Visa USA is committed to increasing the choice, convenience, acceptance and security of Visa payments for all stakeholders in the payments systems - Members, cardholders and merchants. Through its 14,000 Member financial institutions, more than 463 million Visa-branded cards have been issued to cardholders in the United States. Last year, U.S.-based financial institutions relied on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $1.3 trillion in transactions with virtually 100 percent reliability.
Worldwide, cardholders in over 150 countries carry more than 1 billion Visa-branded cards, accounting for more than $3 trillion in annual transaction volume.
Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial resources - anytime, anywhere, anyway.
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