National Bank of Abu Dhabi says DCIM improves system performance

Middle East bank says by monitoring its entire data center it has seen reduced cooling costs, maintenance costs and an increase in systems availability

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi said the use of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) technology has helped it to realize a 20% improvement in systems availability.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi data center group leader Ayman Al-Qudsi said the bank started using the full range of Emmerson Network Power’s Avocent DCIM suite for monitoring and measuring its data center operations.

Since then it said it has managed to bring down its time to market for new data center products and reduce the amount of time and money spent on data center management.

“The products prove a centralized vision of data center management, including power management, remote access, security, data center design and planning,” Qudsi said.

“This all-in-one solution enables us to be more efficient and effective, while eliminating the headaches with having to manage, maintain and learn multiple products.”

DCIM products offered as all-in-one solutions covering all aspects of the data center, from cooling to security, are growing in use as companies look to reduce management complexity thanks to the rise of virtualization and growing complexity of the data center.

NBAD has 110 branchs and 450 ATMS in the UAE, and like most other banks, has a requirement for high availabiltiy.

Qudsi said by using DCIM, the bank had not only increased system availability but been able to introduce centralized and remote management for its data centers. It has also reduced staffing requirements including accommodation costs for engineers visiting its data center by a number of months.

Furthermore, by using DCIM, the bank said it has improved its cooling by two degrees during extreme heat and reduce its overall power consumption.

Emmerson Network Power said its Avocent product, born out of the merger of Emerson’s Apperture and Avocent businesses in 2009 combines Avocent’s network and server access and control tools with Apperture’s infrastructure software.

If you would like to find out more about Avocent, see our digital edition of FOCUS 17, where we cover DCIM and Avocent in more detail.