Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 30 | Page 65

CASE STUDY T he role of IT is considered crucial by the leadership at Al Naboodah Group Enterprises (ANGE). The company has applications that have to be always available to enable collaboration between the 16,000 strong workforce that operate out of 100 plus construction sites and offices across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. ANGE also runs close to 20 specialised construction and commercial applications including AutoCAD, a computer-aided design and drafting application that is used daily by the company’s architects, project managers and engineers. The United Arab Emirates is deeply committed to meeting the climate change ABOUT AL NABOODAH GROUP Founded in 1958 by two brothers, the Saeed and Mohammed Al Naboodah Group is one of the most respected family-owned conglomerates in the UAE. The management of the group’s companies is undertaken by Al Naboodah Group Enterprises (ANGE). Employing over 16,000 people and 47 nationalities, ANGE’s focus covers civil engineering, building, MEP and facilities management, as well as representing a diverse portfolio of global brands in the transportation, travel, electrical, solar, renewable energy, logistics and fit-out arenas. demands of COP21 and, in line with this, the group has set sustainability KPIs for each department. Therefore, as the IT team scaled its operations in-line with business objectives, they were keen to increasingly utilise virtualisation and reduce their carbon footprint. The organisation’s existing backup solution, however, couldn’t meet the IT department’s three key objectives: virtualisation advanced support; backup verification and rapid recovery. Mario Foster, Group Chief Information Officer, said: “With our existing solution we were only able to back up our mission- critical applications and data, and that too was outside of working hours. We generate tremendous volumes of data daily, pertaining to designs, project management, supply chain and logistics, and other critical functions. GREATER SPEED AND EFFICIENCY HAS MEANT THAT ANGE NOW EXTENDS BACKUP TO ALL APPLICATIONS. “It is important there are no interruptions to this data which could have a negative impact on the group’s productivity.” With a host of new applications being added to his environment and an inevitable data explosion on the horizon, Foster knew it was time to look for an alternative. “We were in the market for an ‘availability’ rather than just a backup solution. It had to enable us to meet our sustainability KPIs, safeguard data being constantly generated by the business and ensure applications were always available to employees who relied on them,” he said. ANGE evaluated Proof of Concepts (POCs) from multiple vendors. “While all solutions www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 65