http://www.ameinfo.com/102588.html
Central Bank of Egypt select Integrated Data Center
Solutions from Sun Microsystems and strategic partner Promise
In its efforts to modernize and
restructure the
technological infrastructure, and renovate work mechanism using IT
solutions and applications, the Central Bank of Egypt today announced a
partnership with Sun Microsystems, the world's leading IT Company.
Sun will work with strategic partner Promise, to execute the project
that includes top notch technological solutions and applications for
Integrated Data Centers. The project's budget is estimated to reach
16.3 million EGP.
Chris Cornelius, Managing Director Sun Microsystems Middle East and
North Africa, paid a visit to the Egyptian Central Bank headquarters
and met the bank officials, for a demonstration of the proposed project
execution. The decision to move to an Integrated Data Center is part of
a larger plan to mechanize and modernize the bank's internal systems,
and upgrade the computer network, data centers, integrated applications
and security systems.
Tarek Raof, Assistant Governor Deputy for IT Systems at the Central
Bank of Egypt pointed out that as the center of work flow for all
Egyptian Banks, the implementation team had a huge responsibility to
ensure that any renovation operation of the IT system will result in
improved communications, and continued support to local and
international banks operating in Egypt.
"Choosing Sun Microsystems for executing this project came after a
thorough evaluation of the market and accurate testing of the
applications and solutions that best met the needs of the Central
Bank," added Raof. ' Sun's long standing history of expertise and
efficiency in projects with Promise further reassured the bank that
this was the right team to implement the integrated Data Center.'
The project is the largest undertaken so far between Sun
Microsystems and the Central Bank of Egypt, including servers, data
processing systems, and specialized services. 'Sun and Promise will
supply and assemble the devices in addition to testing them and
training bank employees on usage,' explained Walid Al Hadidy, Sun
Microsystems Sales Manager, Egypt. 'The bank will also be able to call
on technical support through Sun Microsystems' regional technical
support center, which serves North Africa and Levant.'
Sun Microsystems will offer the Bank a bundle of the latest Database
Servers, which were recently released in the Middle East Markets. The
serves include Sun Fire V890-V490, Sun T2000 Application Server with
Cool Multi Threads Technology, in addition to Ultra SPARC TI
Processors, which revolutionized the processors market worldwide with
its strong performance and power saving, and finally the Solaris 10
Operating System.
As for the project's time frame, Hatem Ezzo, Promise Operations
Manager, said the execution steps have already started and are expected
to be finalized by the first quarter of 2007. Ezzo added that the
project includes Integrated Data Center Solutions, for which Sun
Microsystems will supply the specialized Servers. The databases will be
offered by Oracle, which has a long history of global partnership with
Sun Microsystems, ensuring integration between the systems and
facilitating operations for the Central Bank.
Ezzo pointed out that Promise, being the official executer of the
project will carry out the integration process between Sun and Oracle
solutions in order to make using the Data Centers easier and better as
well as more stable and faster in response as these solutions are
mainly built on Linux Open Source. He added that this operation will
ensure work stability 24/7 regardless circumstances.
