"Our mid-range strategy is to exit HP," Cameron said. "It's good technology, but we will consolidate and virtualize, and with those principles we don't need three separate systems."

Suncorp will standardize on IBM's Power-based mid-range systems for all future applications deemed to require a Unix platform, and use VMware's virtualization technology in the Wintel arena.

In the mainframe space the bank has an HP NonStop, formerly Tandem, machine for the ATM network, and two IBM mainframes for core banking and insurance.

"The Tandem is ultra-reliable and very solid [and] we are communicating well with HP about a migration path for the future," Cameron said, adding the mainframe is not a legacy, just a different computing platform.

Other IT initiatives at the bank include the move to VoIP over the next four years and the testing of OpenOffice.org and StarOffice 8.0 for office productivity.