Central Bank of Egypt select Integrated Data Center Solutions from Sun Microsystems and strategic partner Promise

Sun will work with strategic partner Promise, to execute the project that includes top notch technological solutions and applications for Integrated Data Centers. The project's budget is estimated to reach 16.3 million EGP.

Chris Cornelius, Managing Director Sun Microsystems Middle East and North Africa, paid a visit to the Egyptian Central Bank headquarters and met the bank officials, for a demonstration of the proposed project execution. The decision to move to an Integrated Data Center is part of a larger plan to mechanize and modernize the bank's internal systems, and upgrade the computer network, data centers, integrated applications and security systems.

Tarek Raof, Assistant Governor Deputy for IT Systems at the Central Bank of Egypt pointed out that as the center of work flow for all Egyptian Banks, the implementation team had a huge responsibility to ensure that any renovation operation of the IT system will result in improved communications, and continued support to local and international banks operating in Egypt.

"Choosing Sun Microsystems for executing this project came after a thorough evaluation of the market and accurate testing of the applications and solutions that best met the needs of the Central Bank," added Raof. " Sun's long standing history of expertise and efficiency in projects with Promise further reassured the bank that this was the right team to implement the integrated Data Center."

The project is the largest undertaken so far between Sun Microsystems and the Central Bank of Egypt, including servers, data processing systems, and specialized services. "Sun and Promise will supply and assemble the devices in addition to testing them and training bank employees on usage," explained Walid Al Hadidy, Sun Microsystems Sales Manager, Egypt. "The bank will also be able to call on technical support through Sun Microsystems' regional technical support center, which serves North Africa and Levant."

Sun Microsystems will offer the Bank a bundle of the latest Database Servers, which were recently released in the Middle East Markets. The serves include Sun Fire V890-V490, Sun T2000 Application Server with Cool Multi Threads Technology, in addition to Ultra SPARC TI Processors, which revolutionized the processors market worldwide with its strong performance and power saving, and finally the Solaris 10 Operating System.

As for the project's time frame, Hatem Ezzo, Promise Operations Manager, said the execution steps have already started and are expected to be finalized by the first quarter of 2007. Ezzo added that the project includes Integrated Data Center Solutions, for which Sun Microsystems will supply the specialized Servers. The databases will be offered by Oracle, which has a long history of global partnership with Sun Microsystems, ensuring integration between the systems and facilitating operations for the Central Bank.

Ezzo pointed out that Promise, being the official executer of the project will carry out the integration process between Sun and Oracle solutions in order to make using the Data Centers easier and better as well as more stable and faster in response as these solutions are mainly built on Linux Open Source. He added that this operation will ensure work stability 24/7 regardless circumstances.