Al Yousuf L.L.C. invests more than USD1 Million in upgrading their centralized IT infrastructure for core business functions to Sun platform

Al Yousuf L.L.C., which maintains diversified business interests in different sectors, chose the Sun solution - including hardware, software, enterprise SAN storage, networking and training services - based on the return-of-investment of the Sun offering and the faster response times it delivers, as well as the expertise of Sun's partner Mideast Data Systems (MDS), which was involved in implementing the new infrastructure.

"With more than 1,200 employees in the UAE, diverse business activities and management and user's demands, Al Yousuf required a powerful, easy-to-manage IT environment to migrate to, and to process and store all of our business applications and information on one reliable infrastructure," said Mousallam Chatty, Director of IT, Al Yousuf L.L.C.

"We are needed more processing power, which you don't really get from changing the servers only, so the entire Data Center infrastructure had to be revised. The Sun environment has enabled us to improve our processing times and overall IT performance at a very cost-effective investment level," said Chatty.

He added: "The plan was to migrate from Oracle database 7 to 9i, and with the acquired equipment, the aim was to boost the Data Center's performance by 10. All our applications are developed in-house, so we required a complete applications tuning to use the power of the new Oracle optimizer."

Talking about improvements to the system, Chatty said: "After the upgrade, we could push the live system performance by 60 times. Some of the DSS queries used to take 7-8 hours, but now response time is down to 7-8 minutes, while some of our OLTP queries which used to take 2-3 minutes, we brought it down to 1 second. That is 150 times faster on average."

Centralized Data Center for Improved Performance
Previously, Al Yousuf managed a central Data Center to host its in-house developed Oracle-based applications. In order to meet demand and continue to serve all of Al Yousuf's divisions and business entities, the Data Center required an upgrade in both performance and capacity.

As part of its Sun deployment, Al Yousuf replaced its existing NCR servers and storage with two Sun Fire V880 and one Sun Fire 280 servers to support its extensive array of applications, including applications developed in-house on the Oracle platform. The Sun Solaris Operating System will underpin Al Yousuf's new Data Center.

To protect and manage the vast amount of data generated by its different branches and business units, Al Yousuf has implemented a Sun StorEdge 9900V-series enterprise storage system, including hardware and software, as well as the VERITAS NetBackup solution.

Sun iForce partner MDS is managing Al Yousuf's implementation of the new infrastructure, lending its specific expertise in the areas of server consolidation, centralized storage, and enterprise backup solutions, to create a more complete Data Center solution for Al Yousuf. The deal includes comprehensive Sun training and support, to derive maximum return on Al Yousuf's investment in its new technology environment.

"Sun's customers across the region are primarily fast-growing, diverse organizations that face the challenge of managing vast amounts of data generated by customers, partners, and employees. As these companies grow in size, so too does the scope, scale and complexity they face in processing and protecting data," said Mehmet Iyimen, managing director, MENA, Sun Microsystems.

"Al Yousuf has enabled its business needs to drive the company's technology roadmap across all of its diverse operations. This strategy should increase Al Yousuf's ability to make informed decisions across its entire enterprise while reducing the administrative and operational costs associated with its IT division," added Iyimen.

Sun Technology Powers New Al Yousuf Initiatives
The Sun infrastructure is forming the technology basis for the new Al Yousuf 'smart' commercial and residential development on the Dubai Creek, which will provide residents with full wireless network access from anywhere on the premises. Communications services will include voice telephony, unified messaging, and data services, all of which require a robust and highly available IT platform.

"The fundamental benefit of Al Yousuf's technology strategy is that it eliminates any 'islands' of information across all the different business groups to ensure that all of the company's most vital data is stored and managed centrally. This consolidation enables Al Yousuf to deliver a consistent level of IT services and information availability to its diverse business and operations," said Ali Awada, Managing Partner, MDS-Dubai.

"We were in MDS confident that the proposed Sun equipment, MDS expertise, and Al Yousuf outstanding in-house expertise will turn the project to a success story , but the outstanding outcomes bypassed all our expectations by 10 times at least. We congratulate Al Yousuf in their well planned and wise move," said Awada.