Dubai Bank commissions state-of-the-art Disaster Recovery Centre

The site is located 100 km away from the primary data centre, and required rigorous planning and execution to put into place.

The implementation of a Disaster Recovery Site forms an integral part of Dubai Bank's Business Continuity plan. As business processes, systems, and networks are becoming increasingly complex, the need for a robust disaster recovery site is becoming ever more important aspect of the business. Interruption of service or loss of data can have a serious financial impact, both directly and through loss of customer confidence.

Commenting on the completion of implementation, Ali Al Hashimi, Chief Operating Officer of Dubai Bank, said,

"This is a very important milestone for Dubai Bank that has been achieved in an aggressive timeframe. This highlights the capability of the project team to overcome challenges and see through the successful execution of this project. The technicalities involved considerable planning and calculations on space, power, cooling, data integrity and recovery objectives which ultimately align with Dubai Bank's Business Continuity Vision."

Faizal Eledath, Chief Information Officer of Dubai Bank, explained the considerations behind choosing the site as follows: "In finalizing our Business Continuity plan, specifically the Disaster Recovery site, we had to look at the availability of different power grids, the distance from the primary data centre, and insulation from critical environmental factors such as seismic activity, floods, etc. Through the utilization of best-of-breed recovery technology and institutionalizing a full-fledged recovery process we have further secured our business critical data assets from natural disasters."

Other important factors that have been taken into account include near real-time replication of critical data assets from the primary site for faster recovery of business services, and carefully planned RTO (Recovery Time Objectives - the duration of time within which a process must be restored to avoid unacceptable consequences associated with a break in continuity) and RPO (Recovery Point Objectives - the amount of data lost measured in time).

The implementation of the Disaster Recovery site marks the latest accomplishment from Dubai Bank's IT Department, which achieved ISO9001:2000 certification in November 2007 and was named "The Best IT Department of the 2007" by ITP's Arabian Computer Network Magazine.