LGT Bank, one of the largest family-owned private banks in the world, stands apart in an industry defined by transformation and complexity. As Neil, a key member of LGT’s database administration team, reflected, “The client-centric approach is always top priority, and the focus on personalized service is matched only by our commitment to sustainable, responsible investing.”

For both clients and employees, the LGT’s values—tradition, innovation, and global reach—are foundational. Neil shares, “What makes me proud is the immense professional growth I’ve experienced. I am grateful for the reputation and stability that LGT brings, and the strong ethics I see every day.” For Manfred, team leader for the database administrator group, the culture of trust and autonomy is rewarding: “We can design and optimize our systems as we see fit. We’re treated as specialists—it’s special, really.”

Navigating Challenges, Sizing Opportunities

Yet no bank escapes the waves of change. Markets expand, regulations evolve, and the need for data security is ever more critical. “Expanding into new markets—especially with the current regulatory requirements—is a big challenge,” Manfred notes: “But with change comes opportunity. The management’s ability to establish strategic partnerships and drive successful acquisitions has helped us spread our global footprint.”

For the technical teams, a noticeable challenge laid in their data infrastructure. Legacy IBM AIX systems had proven expensive and limiting. “We needed a platform with better performance, but also one that allowed us to scale affordably”, Manfred explains. “Performance in development was capped by costs, and our end-of-day business processes sometimes didn’t finish until 6am. Our old infrastructure was holding us back.”

The Turning Point: Why LGT Chose Oracle Exadata

Performance bottlenecks affected not just business processes, but also customer experience. “Our clients noticed delays in e-banking and reporting,” Neil recalls. “Once we upgraded, the speed improvements were immediately visible and resulted in overwhelmingly positive feedback.”

Crucially, the transition was driven by Oracle Exadata’s robust feature set—especially its engineered Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA). “With Exadata, we gained advanced maintenance options like RAC, and could react to issues more flexibly. The system’s modern platform, rapid patching cycles, and performance leadership made it a clear choice for us,” Neil says.

Migration in Action

Doing things “the LGT way” meant managing the database migration internally. Guided by Neil’s prior experience and a culture of hands-on learning, the team built their own migration framework leveraging Oracle Data Pump, custom scripting, and a rigorous validation processes. “Switching from IBM’s big-endian systems to Exadata’s little endian required full data reorganization. Resolving character set issues proved particularly challenging,” Manfred recalls. “But thanks to teamwork, testing, and Oracle support, we made it work.”

Delivering Impact: Results that Matter

The move to Exadata brought results that exceeded expectations:

  • Availability: LGT significantly improved service levels by enhancing their use of Data Guard and deploying Oracle RAC. The architecture now ensures continuous operation—even if a RAC instance fails, the service remains uninterrupted. Maintenance downtime has been minimized, with maintenance windows now focused on performance improvements rather than service interruption. This represents a major step forward for operations requiring constant access and reliability.
  • Performance: Real-world workflows saw up to 70-80% performance improvements, well above initial projections of 50%. End-of-day processing now finishes comfortably, and customer-facing applications are faster than ever. “It’s a complete game changer,” Manfred says. “Especially for business units reliant on up-to-date market data.”
  • Consolidation and Simplification: The team consolidated legacy infrastructure, collapsing 100 logical machines into six Exadata clusters—a move that streamlined maintenance, improved security, and enabled full multitenancy and containerization strategies.
  • Cost Savings: Hardware costs fell by 30%. Exadata’s flexible licensing model allowed for more efficient core usage, with lifecycle savings expected to grow as they retire the old system.
  • Agility and Autonomy: Internal DBAs now focus on administration, not engineering storage solutions from scratch. Oracle ZFS Storage Applaince backup technologies enabled rapid, reliable cloning needed for testing and development.

“There is more work ahead: stabilizing the environment, learning new Exadata features, and adopting future enhancements such as Exascale and advanced compression,” Manfred notes. “But the foundations are solid.”

Advice to the Industry

For those in financial services contemplating a similar path, Manfred is clear: “It was the best decision we could have made. We can now focus on our core work and let Exadata handle what used to consume so much of our energy. Other banks have watched our journey, and many are now following suit.”

As LGT continues balancing tradition with innovation, its story offers a compelling blueprint for how thoughtful technology adoption—anchored by purpose, collaboration, and a commitment to excellence—can deliver measurable, lasting value for clients, staff, and stakeholders alike.