How Minsheng Bank Built a Unified IT Operations Visualization Platform

Introduction

Minsheng Bank’s IT operations have evolved over years, establishing a CMDB, IT operations management system, centralized monitoring, transaction performance monitoring, automation, and log management platforms, and more recently a big‑data platform to support operational management.

Daily practice links monitoring, workflow, automation, and CMDB systems through mapped relationships, yet tool fragmentation forces engineers to rely on experience and switch between multiple specialized tools for fault location and impact analysis.

Construction Approach and Results

To address this, the bank created a unified visual platform—referred to internally as the "Cloud Map" system—by aggregating configuration data (CMDB), monitoring data, automation data, and change data onto an IT operations architecture diagram.

The system defines four primary data‑consumption scenarios (illustrated below).

1. Daily Monitoring

Engineers can now view real‑time alerts and performance metrics for all systems on a single page, eliminating the need to open multiple monitoring windows and enabling instant visual correlation of transaction volumes, response times, and success rates across partner banks.

2. Fault Isolation

The platform’s "Application Wall" presents aggregated alerts, performance curves, and recent changes, allowing operators to drill down from a high‑level view to detailed architecture and network topology diagrams, thereby narrowing fault domains quickly.

3. Change Impact Analysis

By leveraging complete CMDB relationships, the system instantly reveals all applications affected by a change (e.g., storage maintenance), linking directly to relevant architecture diagrams for deeper impact assessment.

4. Knowledge Sharing

Standardized architecture diagrams enable easy sharing with frontline managers, support training for new staff, and serve as a powerful presentation tool, fostering unified understanding and rapid communication across the organization.

Future Outlook

1. Visual AIOps

Building on a big‑data platform and collaboration with Tsinghua University’s intelligent operations lab, the bank plans to integrate anomaly detection and machine‑learning insights into the visual platform, enabling proactive fault prediction.

2. Automated Scenario Visualization

Upcoming features will visualize application releases and disaster‑recovery switchovers, providing a real‑time “command center” view of workflow execution.

3. Deepened Scenario‑Based Construction

Further enhancements will package relevant architecture, performance, and log data into single pages for change‑review scenarios, allowing operators to receive automated summaries and quickly assess post‑change impacts.

Conclusion

Standardized IT architecture diagrams act as a visual “mind’s eye,” ensuring sustainable governance, fostering a culture of visual‑first thinking in operations, and driving continuous improvement through integrated data consumption across configuration, monitoring, logs, and automation.