Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KNPC) and ITS (International Turnkey Systems), have implemented a virtualized Oracle Enterprise server, which has streamlined processes, reduced bottom line costs and increased its performance by 50 percent.
The project, which was the largest state-of-the-art server ever deployed in the GCC, was implemented by KNPC’s ICT partner ITS, in a bid to increase operational efficiency and help the company navigate through the digital frontier.
KNPC’s increased performance was recorded within its business critical systems, such as financial systems and its in-house applications that manage refinery procurement schedules. With the successful completion of the ICT project, KNPC now boasts one of the biggest hardware infrastructures in the region paving the way for similar successes from other enterprises in Kuwait.
By investing in this virtualized ICT solution, KNPC has further strengthened the security of its processes with the introduction of a new disaster recovery protocol, allowing for the business applications and data to be immediately backed-up and transferred to an alternative location in the event that the server is damaged.
As one of the only qualified company’s in the region that integrate between different vendors and being fully certified to deploy High-end storage technology, ITS was well placed to manage the implementation project.
Abdulaziz Ahmed Abdulrahman Al-Duaij, Manager Information Technology at KNPC said: “At KNPC we have been working toward a single ICT vision – to align our technology systems under one unified solution, offering resources and benefits to our group of companies. The introduction of this new virtualized Oracle Enterprise server, implemented by partner ITS, gives us the best design to support our databases and Oracle E-Business Suite applications according to our business requirements. As a result our system performance, availability and reliability have all improved tremendously and we are now confident we can scale to develop new key projects such as clean fuel and a new refinery. Due to our strict resource requirements, we needed an ICT provider that had all the appropriate certifications to deploy technology from a wide variety of vendors, ITS was the clear choice to implement this project due to its vast experience in this field and credentials in the market.”
The ITS multi-threaded virtual Oracle Enterprise server has opened KNPC’s network allowing it to share resources with its other offices across the region, offering Software-As-A-Service (SAAS), which reduces hardware infrastructural and system maintenance costs. This has reduced data center floor space by nearly 50 percent and significantly lowered power consumption and cooling requirements, which has reduced costs while helping the company attain environmental goals. SAAS offers KNPC the benefit of improved scalability and flexibility, previously considered a barrier for growth within the company.
As part of this project, ITS implemented more than nine Storage Clusters within KNPC, which is the highest number of storage clusters ever implemented in Kuwait.
The ICT project is part of a wider initiative by Kuwait Petroleum Company, parent company of KNPC to connect the many businesses under its umbrella, enabling them to share technological resources and ultimately becoming a more streamlined and manageable conglomerate.
Yaqoub Khajah, Acting Line of Business Head – Energy, ITS said: “This deployment was an important project for KNPC and as the company’s trusted ICT solution provider we oversaw and managed the implementation process. As consultants, we worked closely with KNPC to review their strategic goals, develop the project plan and identify the technical requirements that would assure the implementation could be conducted at minimum cost within their specific time-frame. The introduction of this high-end virtualized Oracle Enterprise server is only the beginning for KNPC as we work closely with them to fortify and upgrade its entire network infrastructure.”
To make this project a success, ITS worked with a number third party vendors such as Oracle, Symantec and EMC to deliver these solutions to KNPC.
