IBM Japan and IIJ Form a Strategic Partnership, Begin Provision of a "Distributed System Joint Platform" for Regional Financial Institutions

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TOKYO – October 1, 2024 - IBM Japan, Ltd. (IBM Japan) and Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (IIJ, TSE Prime: 3774) have formed a strategic partnership aimed at next-generation system upgrades by financial institutions. Starting today, IBM Japan begins providing a "Distributed System Joint Platform" for regional financial institutions. The regional banking system alliance group "Judankai" has already decided to adopt the new platform and another such alliance group "Chance" is also considering to adopt the new platform.

IBM Japan has newly begun provision of a "Financial Hybrid Cloud Platform（*）" that goes beyond the existing framework by which regional financial institutions share so-called IT platforms, such as mainframe computers or distributed systems. The new platform is an initiative aimed at long-term use, offering diverse options to fit the management strategy at each point in time. One of the key components of the Financial Hybrid Cloud Platform is the distributed system joint platform resulting from the collaboration between IBM Japan and IIJ. It is being provided to enable efficient distributed system use, where flexibility and scalability for meeting market changes are essential.

• （※）IBM Japan Press Release of October 1, 2024: "IBM, in collaboration with MUFJ Bank and IIJ, launched a new "Financial Hybrid Cloud Platform" for regional financial institutions"

About the Distributed System Joint Platform

The "Distributed System Joint Platform" provides services with the flexibility and scalability for adapting to the individual needs of each financial institution, as well as being cost competitive while ensuring quality and mission-criticality required by financial institutions. Regional financial institutions are able to use distributed system services managed in the latest highly robust data centers through a private network backbone with the same quality and availability as IIJ's Internet backbone.

This private network backbone safely and smoothly interconnects to not only the "Distributed System Joint Platform" but also other service platforms in the "Financial Hybrid Cloud Platform" such as a "Mainframe Joint Platform," and a "Digital Service Platform" which provides major cloud services such as IBM Cloud and IIJ GIO. The backbone also provides access to security, office automation and other services whose use is expected to grow in the future. By logically implementing the various network requirements of financial institutions using a shared system on this private network backbone, major cost reductions can be realized as it leads to efficiency beyond the shared framework in network construction and management operations.

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IBM Japan and IIJ will work together with regional financial institutions to promote the advancement of new collaboration frameworks, going beyond the existing shared system framework of regional banking systems by leveraging their respective areas of expertise.

The statements within this release contain forward-looking statements about our future plans that involve risk and uncertainty. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results.

For inquiries, contact

IBM Japan Kawakami

• +81-3-3808-5120
• pressrel@jp.ibm.com
• https://www.ibm.com/jp

IIJ Corporate Communications

• +81-3-5205-6310
• +81-3-5205-6377
• press@iij.ad.jp

• (*) All company names and service names used in this press release are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.