Arab National Bank uses APC to build data centre

Arab National Bank (ANB) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently installed a Tier 3+ dark data centre by APC by Schneider Electric, a critical power and cooling services provider. The data centre is a strategic implementation, that has to support all mission critical applications and the IT infrastructure for all clients of ANB.

Kumail Dehradunwala, head of IT, ANB said, “At ANB, we are a true 24/7 financial institution, offering complete financial services to both our private and business customers along with a full range of domestic and international commercial, traditional and Islamic products and services to the retail and corporate sectors.  Our IT department supports the bank’s client representatives, tellers, loan officers and back end operations personnel. We manage key network components such as desktop computers and associated peripherals, servers and telephone systems.”

“If our systems fail at any time, the consequences could be catastrophic and very costly. That’s why maintaining network uptime, a stable server, network and workstation infrastructure is critical to the company’s success and directly impacts the return on investment our clients receive”.

The new mission critical data centre supports ANB’s core banking system, numerous other critical financial applications as well as the main communication equipment and other essential data related services.

The purpose of the new dark data centre was to host all the services provided to ANB branches, Telemoney Centres, ATMs and ANB customer’s services, as ANB has around 900 ATMs, 178 Branches and 78 Telemoney Centres, 5000 PCs kingdom wide.

“APC by Schneider Electric’s HACS (Hot Air Containment Systems) technology is truly state of the art and provides much better efficiency for high density blade servers and helps eliminate hot spots to deliver long term scalability.  The InfraStruXure Central management software’s ease of management, failure alerts and integration with the BMS solution sealed the deal. APC’s reputation for reliability and the commitment from the local team also factored into our purchase decision” Kumail explained.

The installation consists of the extremely efficient InRow Cooling architecture with HACS technology. Intelligent rack systems for better environmental monitoring and the highest level of security using rack access control and the ever reliable Netbotz cameras were also deployed. The installation of APC’s InfraStruXure Central, a monitoring system which collects, organises and distributes critical alerts, surveillance video and key information from anywhere on the network completed the entire solution.

“The new ANB dark data centre has been built with long-term vision and a cost efficiency model that are not based on immediate short-term savings only but also focusing on quality, reliability, green concepts and practices and customer satisfaction. PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and Capacity and Change Manager implementation as the next step will complete the picture’’, concluded Kumail.

Mentioned Mahmoud Al Husseini, VP of Saudi Business Machines: “We are very pleased to be associated with a project of this stature in the financial sector. APC’s solutions today are unique due to the fact that their technology innovations are coupled with sound ROI business models, which was a key factor for SBM to tie up with APC’’.

Additional solutions include Schneider Electric’s range of Low Voltage switchboards, Prisma Plus using the state of the art range of Molded case and Air circuit breakers allowing continuity of service at all times which is critical for such an installation.

These Prisma Plus Type Tested switchboards guarantee complete peace of mind to the end customer and reduces downtime to the bare minimum. In addition, the Disbo Extra final distribution boards installed downstream ensure maximum protection to the operators and maintenance people managing the installation anywhere on the network.

“Rising power densities, unprecedented cooling issues and the need to manage your datacenter from a single pane of glass are a customers’ central focus. The clear path to capturing these new revenue streams lie in providing solutions, not just products. Our constant collaboration with other business units of Schneider Electric in our endeavor to come across as One Solution Provider reinforces our management capabilities and ability to provide a complete turnkey solution to the customer” concluded Jeff de Sousa, Country VP, APC by Schneider Electric, Saudi Arabia.