CASE STUDY
“Data Protection solutions by Dell EMC
help ensure that our present storage
infrastructure not only facilitates round-the-
clock data availability but also extends a
high level of data protection and recovery
at the speed of our business. Hence, we are
extremely glad to be working with Dell EMC
to realise our vision of becoming the most
sustainable and profitable Islamic bank in
the world.”
Fahad Al Rashdan, Regional Director at
International Turnkey Systems Group (ITS),
said: “ITS has developed and refined its
award-winning technology for Islamic bank
and financial institutions for over 36 years.
“Our extensive industry experience helped
us identify Dell EMC’s Data Protection
Suite as the solution that would deliver a
superior banking experience for KFH. With
this new implementation, KFH will further
upgrade its banking system to unlock new
enterprise capabilities and better serve its
customers’ needs.”
Habib Mahakian, Vice President, Gulf at Dell
EMC, said: “We are immensely pleased to
be working with an innovation-led financial
institution such as the Kuwait Financial House
and supporting it with its objective of creating
a strong foundation for data growth.
“At Dell EMC, we aim to ensure that by
leveraging our Data Protection Solutions,
KFH is able to protect its critical data and
optimise the protection and availability of
its IT environment to deliver cutting-edge
services and deliver the highest level of
customer service.”
We asked Srood Sherif, Group Chief
Information Officer, more questions
about the solution.
What recovery capabilities does the
solution offer KFH?
The solution delivers digitisation of legacy
data residing on magnetic tapes that might
not guarantee recovery when needed. With
the Dell EMC solution, KFH benefits from
recovery within minutes or hours instead
of days or weeks and this determines the
business differentiation for KFH. Getting
data back from legacy repositories quickly
and reliably enhances KFH’s compliance and
data risk posture significantly.
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ABOUT KUWAIT FINANCE
HOUSE (KFH):
KFH was established in Kuwait in 1977
and is enlisted in the Kuwait Stock
Exchange. The KFH Group is a global
pioneer in the field of Islamic banking
services, where it offers a wide array of
Islamic products and services, as well
as a high standard of innovation and
client service.
The bank manages its operations in the
GCC, Asia, and Europe through over 480
branches, including KFH-Turkey, in order
to offer services for the bank’s clients in
Turkey, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain,
Germany, Jordan,and Dubai.
KFH’s vision is to spearhead the global
development in Islamic financial
services, and to upgrade the bank
into the level of becoming the most
sustainable profitable Islamic bank in
the world.
How has it allowed you to achieve an
increased level of data availability?
historical transaction reports for example),
solve transactions disputes quicker and
ensure industry compliance reliably.
What was the problem with keeping
data on backup tapes and why is the
new system better?
Tapes are magnetic in nature and degrade
over time. Furthermore, regular use of tapes
(even for test extractions) cause degradation
and makes this media type least reliable
in the context of criticality of data and the
nature of the business. The new system
is a disk based data repository for legacy
backups. It is highly evolved and purpose-
built to meet KFH’s demands on legacy data
backup storage and rapid access. Recovery
from tapes would take days or weeks, which
can be done in minutes or hours in the new
system. Additionally, tapes require safe and
physical space that is expensive considering
the number of tapes we have accumulated
over the years.
Why is it important for you to be
able to offer real time data access
and how does the solution let you
achieve this?
The solution provides quick access to legacy
data backups, since the repository would no
longer be based on tapes (once we complete
full migration). Rapid recovery capabilities
from the solution assure KFH of delivering
information back to the business units as
and when transactional level information is
sought, either internally or externally (such
as the Central Bank). The ability of accessing
legacy backups of core and transactional
systems quickly and reliably ensure that data
is made available to the business on time
and with accuracy. Real-time (and near real time) data access is a
key business differentiator. It allows KFH to re-
prioritise its essential resources, thus enabling
us to sharpen our focus on customers and
markets, and to address the risk mitigation
process requirements much quicker and with
greater simplicity. The new solution addresses
the core issue i.e. petabytes of transactional
(historical) data lying idle on tapes. Data
extraction from legacy tapes forces KFH to
use archaic methods and processes which
are no longer aligned with KFH’s strategy to
be a leading financial services provider in the
countries it operates.
In what ways does it mean
you can deliver a superior
banking experience? What advantages does having
around the clock availability bring
to you?
The ability of accessing legacy backups
of core and transactional systems quickly
and reliably ensures that data is made
available to the business units on time
and with accuracy. Being able to address
data extraction requests from business
and by extension, requests from regulatory
authorities will ensure that KFH’s businesses
are able to address customer requests (i.e. We are able to address regulatory data
extraction requests from old backups; run
tests and forecasts on historical data assets
reliably and with predictability; address
KFH’s data loss risk posture with regard to
legacy data backups lying idle on tapes; put
legacy data to use; and address customer
transaction extraction requests in a timely
manner and with ease. n
INTELLIGENTCIO
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