CASE STUDY
G
ulf Bank, one of the leading
financial institutions in Kuwait, is
utilising Dell solutions to enable
its Digital Transformation project. Taking
significant steps towards sustaining business
continuity and scalable data mobility, the
bank is leveraging industry-leading storage
management and data protection solutions
by Dell Technologies, to ensure maximum
return on investment.
Kuwait’s strategic Vision 2035 centres
on transforming the country into a world
class financial hub, with the private sector
leading economic activities, fostering
competitiveness and creating an enabling
business environment. With this primary
goal at the heart of its transformative
efforts, Gulf Bank aims to be at the
frontlines of emerging industry innovation
and embrace data-driven banking – which
is evolving as a key driver of operational
and competitive differentiation.
To this end, Gulf Bank planned to modernise
its IT infrastructure with a robust and flexible
data management backbone that can
effectively store and protect the growing
volume of data from multiple sources.
Its project with Dell Technologies is divided
into two critical parts – data management and
backup. To realise efficient data management,
ABOUT GULF BANK
Gulf Bank is one of the leading
conventional banks in Kuwait with
total assets of KD 6 billion for the
year ending December 31. The bank
provides a broad offering of consumer
banking, wholesale banking, treasury
and financial services through its large
network of 58 branches and more than
200 ATMs in Kuwait.
The bank was founded in 1960 and
has been listed on the Kuwait Stock
Exchange (Boursa Kuwait) since 1984.
The bank is currently ranked ‘A’
by the four leading international
credit rating agencies: Moody’s, S&P
Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings and CI
Capital Intelligence.
Gulf Bank is strongly committed to
giving back to Kuwaiti society through
its corporate social responsibility
programme. The bank supports
numerous events focusing on youth,
education, health and fitness, helping
the underprivileged, women’s
empowerment, as well as promoting
Kuwait’s heritage and culture.
AUTOMATION AND ORCHESTRATION
OF THE FULL DATA CENTRE IS ONE OF
THE EMERGING TRENDS BOUND TO
DOMINATE THE INDUSTRY.
continuous data availability, seamless mobility
and accelerate data centre modernisation, Gulf
Bank is leveraging Dell Technologies VPLEX
and RecoverPoint solutions. These solutions
are purpose-built to ensure operational agility
and flexibility to match IT infrastructure to the
speed of changing business needs. In addition,
VPLEX and RecoverPoint will help Gulf Bank
expand its operations across three data centres
in the future.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
To comply with offshore data regulations
set by the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK)
and manage operational overhead costs
for storing long term retention data on
tapes, Gulf Bank has opted to deploy Data
Domain and Deduplication Technology
to speed backups and reduce costs. These
solutions by Dell Technologies are helping
the bank save valuable floor space, simplify
operations, improve disaster recovery,
reduce backup and recovery risks and
importantly, enable a tapeless environment.
An agreement drawn up between Gulf
Bank alongside Dell Technologies aims
to empower Gulf Bank’s business and
propel its transformation journey to offer
maximum value to customers.
Dr Waleed Al-Hasawi, General Manager of
Information Technology at Gulf Bank, said:
“To win today’s market and ensure business
sustainability, it is critical that financial
institutions change their direction and
elevate their pace of business innovation.
“Keeping this in mind, we at Gulf Bank
wanted to set our foundation for the new
digital era. To do this, our first step was to
choose a trusted partner who could not only
help us imagine our IT environment, but
also help us as an organisation to ensure
effective outcomes. And, we hope our
partnership with Dell Technologies enables
us to achieve this vision.”
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