Red Hat, Inc. has announced that Canara Bank, one of the largest banks in India has selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux as its platform of choice to automate more than 1,000 branches across the country. The project marks the largest roll out of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the Indian BFSI vertical so far.

Under the roll out of Total Branch Automation (TBA), Canara Bank is modernizing branch automation through an in house developed TBA package. The package has been ported to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform by Canara Bank's subsidiary, CanBank Computer Services Ltd. (CCSL). As part of its vision of using technology to provide affordable banking services to the vast rural population of India, Canara Bank is modernizing its branch network by embracing the latest technologies available.

With a modernized branch infrastructure, Canara Bank hopes to serve customers in a timely and efficient manner, reinforcing its image of being a customer savvy bank. Canara Bank officials say, "TBA modernization is an important project for us and we have chosen Red Hat Enterprise Linux as our platform for this project. We are very happy with it."

Red Hat's flagship operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, will be deployed on more than 1,000 servers and 10,000 desktops at Canara Bank to provide a robust, secure and scalable solution for powering the bank's business critical IT infrastructure. Under the first phase of deployment, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been rolled out at approximately 500 branches in a record time of three months.

Close to 500 Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers and 5000 Red Hat Desktops have been deployed in this phase. As part of its vision to introduce 100% automation into its banking services environment, Canara Bank is actively pursuing deployment in additional branches as well.

With a history that dates back to nearly a century, Canara Bank has achieved the distinction of being the one of the country's highest net profit earners among nationalized banks for the year March, 2005. The bank has a network of 2508 branches across India. The Bank has a vision to help improve the economic condition of the common people of India.

Javed Tapia, Director, Red Hat India, says, "We share a similar vision as Canara Bank - to reach out to the masses by providing an affordable means to access the benefits of technology. Canara Bank's TBA modernization is the largest Enterprise Linux deployment of its kind in the Indian BFSI segment and we are proud to be associated with the project."

Red Hat has worked closely with Canara Bank to provide a stable and fine tuned platform for its desktop and servers. Red Hat has also provided training and help desk services to Canara Bank for deployment and sustenance of the project over a long term. Reliable support and professional services and consulting were also key factors behind Canara Bank's decision of selecting Red Hat as its vendor of choice.