STME secures largest-ever enterprise storage deal in Kuwait with Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC)

The Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has invested more than USD $1.5 million in a comprehensive disaster recovery infrastructure, provided by STME, to manage and protect over 1 terabyte, or one trillion bytes, of mission-critical data.

KNPC' new enterprise storage infrastructure stores and makes accessible information for the three major oil refineries that together are one of the world's largest oil complexes. As part of its storage strategy, the oil giant has linked two of its refineries together via a storage area network (SAN), to provide disaster recovery capabilities for its data should unplanned downtime occur. Financial data, inventories, ordering systems, and stock controls are just some of the vital information stored on the new system architected by STME.

"In order to maximize resources and product output at KNPC, it's critical that we have uninterrupted access to key corporate information, from any number of offices, plants, and the three main refineries," stated Abdul Aziz Al-Baghli, Computer Operations Superintendent.

"In addition to centrally storing and managing our data, KNPC developed a strategy to prevent the loss of both time and money should an outage or other disaster occur. Synchronizing KNPC's most important data across two remote sites enables us to get back on-line quickly in the case of any unplanned data losses, and that peace-of-mind more than justifies KNPC's investment in an enterprise storage strategy from STME," added Al-Baghli.

The KNPC deal is also unique for STME in that it includes solutions from almost all of the storage provider's key technology partners. At the core of its disaster recovery infrastructure, KNPC has deployed two EMC Symmetrix systems, linked across a CNT fiber channel by the Symmetrix Remote Data Facility, EMC's premier business continuity software tool. KNPC performs online back-up of its vital data using VERITAS NetBackup, connected to a StorageTek library at the secondary site, and its storage network is attached to KNPC's servers via Brocade switches.

As part of its agreement with KNPC, STME has provided business assessment services prior to deployment, as well as the implementation, training, and support for the oil leader's new storage solution.

"KNPC did things a little differently in their selection of an enterprise storage strategy. First, KNPC took a thorough look at their business needs and current infrastructure rather than adopting a 'rip and replace' approach to storage. Second, KNPC decided on a 'best-of-breed' solution made up of storage-specific vendors that excel in their respective fields, rather than selecting a 'one-size-fits-all,' single IT vendor. This attention to detail makes KNPC's storage deployment one of the most advanced and wide-reaching initiatives in the region," noted Trevor Hutson, President & Chief Operating Officer, STME.

"Given the traditional industry focus on all aspects of safety and security, as well as vigilant resource utilization, the energy sector is one of the fastest-growing areas for enterprise storage and disaster recovery deployments," Hutson added.