Cisco technology allows Oman Arab Bank to mitigate risk by safely trialing new services

1. Bank Uses Borderless Network Customer Case Study
Development to Boost Innovation
Cisco technology allows Oman Arab Bank to mitigate risk by safely trialing new services
Challenge
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Oman Arab Bank is a leading Middle East financial services institution. It was formed in
1984 and has earned an average return on equity of more than 20 percent per year for
Customer Name: Oman Arab Bank the last 25 years. Much of the recent success of the bank, which operates in the retail,
corporate, and investment banking sectors, has been due to its ability to deliver innovative
Industry: Financial services
new technology-based services.
Location: Oman
Innovation carries a risk, however. Oman Arab Bank has a highly skilled and experienced
Number of Employees: 885 technology development team, but its expertise cannot guarantee that new systems or
applications will function smoothly upon deployment with existing IT platforms. Because
Challenge Oman Arab Bank works closely with government departments and ministries (in some
• Maintain and build upon reputation for cases even handling their electronic payments systems), its production networks must
innovation in banking applications operate faultlessly when new technologies are implemented.
• Help ensure integrity of existing
operations while introducing new services Solution
Oman Arab Bank has long been an important Cisco customer in the Middle East and
• Support continued banking growth
relies on an end-to-end Cisco infrastructure to power its production network. The bank
Solution was also one of the first companies in the region to adopt Cisco® IP Contact Center
• Development network based on Cisco Enterprise Edition.
Borderless Networks architecture
To support the creation of new technology products and services, however, the bank
Results has taken the unique step of creating an extensive development network that mirrors
its production environment down to the smallest detail. In the development network,
• 15-minute disaster recovery capability
located in the IT department at the bank’s Muscat headquarters, new platforms and
• Failsafe implementation of new applications are rigorously tested for up to six months before full deployment.
technologies
• Continued lead in innovation in banking The development network features a range of Cisco platforms including Catalyst® 6500
sector and region and 4500 Series Switches and Cisco 3800, 2900, 2800, and 1800 Series Integrated
Services Routers. The setup also includes Cisco Unified Communications Manager for
IP telephony, Cisco IP Phones, and Cisco voice gateways.
Hassan Abdul Ali Al-Lawati, deputy general manager and IT head at Oman Arab Bank, says: “The borderless network that we use for
development is shortcutting the need to bring everybody together in a single room. It’s become critical in enabling collaboration across
the development teams.”
Results
Since the development network was created, it has grown in size by a factor of 10 to 15, highlighting its importance to the bank. Oman
Arab Bank is now recognized as a true innovator within the Middle East banking sector, and this innovation is delivering significant benefits.
In the event of a disaster, for example, the bank has been able to reduce its time to recovery from an hour to just 15 minutes for planned
and unplanned downtime and disaster recovery. This advancement allowed its branches and e-government payment services to remain
operative when all the other banking systems in Oman were knocked out by Cyclone Gonu in 2007, the strongest tropical cyclone on
record in the Arabian Sea.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 1 of 2

2. Customer Case Study
Elsewhere, technology development is allowing Oman Arab Bank to work alongside
public sector bodies in the provision of citizen services. Here, says Hassan Abdul Ali:
“We are working at the banking, governmental, and society level. There is a need to
“In terms of technology
bring public sector and banking solutions together to add value.”
innovation, we are not only
Today Oman Arab Bank runs electronic payment systems at ministries, government
the first in Oman, but in the departments, and institutions, and supports a wide range of tax payment, mobile banking,
whole of the Middle East.” and card-based payment processes. Thanks to the sophistication of its development
network, it has achieved this high level of innovation without compromising the security,
Hassan Abdul Ali Al-Lawati reliability, and integrity of its production infrastructure.
Deputy general manager and IT head
“In terms of technology innovation, we are not only the first in Oman, but in the whole
Oman Arab Bank
of the Middle East,” Hassan Abdul Ali says. “Some of this is evident in terms of tangible
benefits, but the vast majority is about insuring against calamity. That’s vitally important,
but impossible to quantify.”
Oman Arab Bank is currently preparing for a move to a new headquarters building that will
be equipped with further Cisco technologies, including a LAN core based on Cisco Nexus®
switching platforms and an access layer made up of Catalyst 4500 Series switches, with
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Multilayer SAN switches for fiber-channel-over-IP connectivity.
Last but not least, the bank is evaluating the potential of Cisco Unified Computing System™
servers alongside its existing IBM machines. Once the technology has been thoroughly
tested on the development network, naturally.
For More Information
To discover how Cisco can help you succeed with borderless networks, please go
to: www.cisco.com/go/borderless
Product List
Routing and switching
• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches
• Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series switches
• Cisco 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers
• Cisco 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers
• Cisco 2800 Series Integrated Services Routers
• Cisco 1800 Series Integrated Services Routers
IP telephony
• Cisco IP Phones
• Cisco voice gateways
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager
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