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BLOM BANK's Rapid Expansion with IBM DS8870 Storage Solutions
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Private Cloud
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Construction Management
- Infrastructure Inspection
Services
- Testing & Certification
The Challenge
BLOM BANK, a leading Lebanese bank, was looking to expand its market share in Lebanon and the EMEA region. To achieve this, the bank recognized the need to embrace the omnichannel digital banking trend. However, this had to be done without compromising on data availability or efficiency. The bank had a solid track record of profitability and growth in Lebanon and the EMEA region, while following a conservative strategy that includes prudent risk management. The challenge was to maintain this winning approach while providing innovative products and services to customers and staying at the forefront of technology. Achieving this without compromising service quality would require the bank to find a stable technology partner, who could offer a technology mix that would enable growth, efficiency and service continuity as BLOM BANK evolves.
About The Customer
BLOM BANK is a leading Lebanese bank, which offers retail, commercial, corporate, private, and investment banking services. Operating in 13 countries in the EMEA with 257 branches, the bank has assets of USD 28.93 billion and the highest rate of return on average equity at 15.2 percent. The bank has repeatedly been selected as the “Best Bank in Lebanon” by recognized regional and international institutions, and has built up a solid track record of profitability and growth in Lebanon and the EMEA region, while following a conservative strategy that includes prudent risk management.
The Solution
BLOM BANK chose IBM DS8870 storage solutions, deployed in a high-availability configuration, as the backbone for its three-site data center replication strategy. This strategy links the bank’s primary, high availability and remote disaster recovery data centers. To ensure local and remote data replication under a constrained link bandwidth, the bank collaborated with IBM to implement local synchronous replication using IBM Metro Mirror, and remote asynchronous replication enabled by IBM Global Mirror and Metro Global Mirror technologies. The storage solution also integrates seamlessly with the rest of the bank’s IT infrastructure, which includes servers based on IBM® POWER8® processors and IBM DB2® solutions that support its core banking application; and a virtual desktop infrastructure solution supported by IBM Storwize® V7000 storage.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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