WeBank SpA's disaster recovery and business continuity requirements. ... hard drives, high capacity NL-SAS hard drives,
WeBank SpA EMC solutions provide performance and business continuity for Oracle RAC databases OVERVIEW WeBank was born as a brand of Banca Popolare di Milano at the end of 1999 to provide Internet banking services to its customers through We@Service SpA, the online services company of the Group. At the end of 2009, the bank completed the transformation of We@Service SpA into WeBank SpA (www.webank.it). The brand became a direct online bank that operated through its Internet channel, offering a full range of banking and financial services to its customers, both corporate and retail.
ESSENTIALS Industry Financial Services Business Challenges •
Slow performance impaired speed of online trading
•
Existing storage could not adequately support Oracle RAC in
•
The next year, as part of a project to improve the online segment of the BPM Group, WeBank SpA was integrated and merged with WeTrade SIM SpA, the company formed by the acquisition of IntesaTrade by Banca Popolare di Milano. The deal allowed WeBank SpA to supplement its online trading offerings with a diverse range of platforms, tools, and functions designed to meet the requirements of all operators: from small investors to heavy traders. WeBank SpA continues to offer online banking services to the other banks of the Group, and develops and manages their sites.
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
an active/active environment
The evolution of WeBank SpA online services required higher performance to speed
Four hour restore times in the
online trading. Today, the bank's IT department manages over 130,000 direct
event of a disaster
customers, as well another 500,000 who work online with other banks in the Group.
Solutions •
EMC VNX unified storage
•
EMC Total Efficiency Pack
•
EMC VPLEX Metro
•
EMC Remote Protection Suite
•
Oracle RAC
“With the coming of online trading we had to rethink the architecture of our computing system,” says Daniela Pivato, IT director, WeBank SpA. “Our goal was to offer high-performance transaction execution to meet the needs of the more advanced traders, and to be competitive in the market. To do this, it was necessary to increase the level of availability and speed up the response times of the online database through a high-performance and secure IT infrastructure.” The design of the new WeBank SpA IT infrastructure started in 2012 with the aim of creating two data centers operating simultaneously in active/active mode, to balance the workloads, and to achieve the highest levels of disaster recovery and business continuity.
SOLUTIONS WeBank SpA's online Oracle RAC database manages all customer retail and trading transactions. It is a critical component that affects the bank's competitiveness. Therefore, rapid response times and transaction speeds are essential. WeBank SpA's Oracle RAC solution contains two nodes. The choice of a new IT storage infrastructure was vital because it had to support Oracle, meet performance and security requirements, and integrate within a multi-site active/active environment CUSTOMER PROFILE
Among the different market offerings it considered, WeBank chose EMC® VNX® unified
Results •
• •
Provided full active/active support and continuity for Oracle
bank. The EMC solution federates two separate VNX systems located in two separate
RAC
data centers at a significant distance from one another and connected through VPLEX.
Sped online transaction times by
The configuration enables high performance, continuity of service, and full utilization
50 percent
of Oracle RAC capacity within an active/active environment.
Achieved zero downtime and high
Each of the two data centers is connected by fiber optics. In the event of a disaster,
data availability due to federated
the design and configuration of the integrated EMC solution allows WeBank to fail
infrastructure •
storage integrated with EMC VPLEX® Metro as best solution to meet the needs of the
Enabled near-instant restore time in the event of failure
over to a single data center without any degradation in performance, and in a way that is absolutely transparent to internal and external users. This infrastructure enables WeBank to provide its clients with the highest service levels in any situation, even in the event of planned or unplanned failures at either of the two data centers.
PROVIDING HIGH PERFORMANCE FOR ORACLE RAC EMC storage infrastructure working in active/active mode has been designed to meet WeBank SpA's disaster recovery and business continuity requirements. Each data center contains a VNX solution integrated with VMware®, and configured with SAS hard drives, high capacity NL-SAS hard drives, Flash drives, and the EMC FAST™ Suite (including FAST Cache and FAST VP).
“We chose EMC because it was the most responsive to our goals. Having the Oracle RAC database on two VNX storage systems, positioned at a distance and replicated in sync with each other through VPLEX, ensures maximum safety and continuity of service without performance loss even if one of the two data centers is blocked." Daniela Pivato IT Director at WeBank SpA
The VNX systems store all WeBank SpA data, including critical Oracle RAC online databases and other databases; images of the VMware production machines; and other production and development applications and data. The VNX series is designed to exploit the full potential of Flash drive technology— maximizing performance and minimizing costs. To ensure high performance, WeBank has adopted a FLASH 1st strategy—Flash drives combined with the FAST Suite (a software suite that enables the automatic tiering of data among the drives mounted in a VNX system). FAST Cache allocates, in real time, the most active data to high performance Flash drives, while FAST VP follows policies specified by the user to dynamically allocate data to the appropriate drives, according to the demand placed on them. WeBank SpA has assigned the fastest Flash and SAS drives to the Oracle RAC online database to obtain the best possible performance. VNX scalability, flexibility, ease of configuration, automated storage tiering, and virtual provisioning make the systems unique in the market, enabling WeBank SpA to meet the requirements of its current and future projects.
FEDERATED INFRASTRUCTURE ENSURES CONTINUITY VPLEX Metro, deployed in each data center, federates the solutions by instantly replicating seven TB of critical data between the two VNX platforms. By replicating critical data on both VNX systems, WeBank SpA can ensure continuity of service in any situation. Other data (approximately 13 TB) is duplicated using EMC Remote Protection Suite functioning in synchronous mode. VPLEX Metro virtual storage technology has been certified by Oracle for Oracle RAC configurations over distances of up to 100 km. The combination of active/active Oracle RAC cluster servers and VPLEX Metro provides simultaneous access to the same information at both locations. This increases the levels of data mobility, availability, and performance of the database at a distance. For Oracle RAC users, including WeBank SpA, VPLEX Metro is an easy way to simplify the complexity of “dual site” configurations which respond to mission-critical uptime needs of the market regardless of where the data resides. WeBank SpA implemented the EMC storage infrastructure quickly, requiring only a few weeks to complete all phases of installation, data migration, testing, and deployment. The infrastructure has been subjected to intensive testing to ensure its correct operation and full effectiveness. During testing, one of the two sites was powered off during normal operation to verify the continuity of service at the other data center, with absolute transparency for users and without loss of performance.
BENEFITS The benefits of the VNX and VPLEX storage configuration were obvious: •
Improved performance: The execution time for online operations, especially for more complex trades, fell by an average of 50 percent. This improvement was checked by bank IT staff and applauded by the trade clients, who could visually appreciate the increased speed of trade entries.
•
Easy management: After the setup phase, the management of the entire infrastructure has proven to be simple and user friendly, allowing the IT staff of the bank to control it in full autonomy.
•
Zero downtime: The combination of VPLEX and VNX for Oracle RAC has enabled the bank to achieve “no single point of failure” and “zero RPO” due to the activeactive environment.
•
Near-zero restore time: WeBank SpA was able to declare to the Bank of Italy that even in case of serious failures at one of the two data centers, the restore time for information and applications has been reduced to almost zero, with a marked improvement over the four hours needed with the previous architecture.
•
Customer services: The contribution of EMC specialists was most helpful during the design, configuration, and implementation of the systems; and the postinstall remote support has also proven to be timely and effective.
HIGH PRAISE Daniela Pivato, IT Director at WeBank SpA, has this to say about the EMC solutions: “We chose EMC because it was the most responsive to our goals. Having the Oracle RAC database on two VNX storage systems, positioned at a distance and replicated in sync with each other through VPLEX, ensures maximum safety and continuity of service without performance loss even if one of the two data centers is blocked." "In addition, thanks to the performance of VNX made even higher by the capabilities of the FAST Suite, we have reduced the average transaction times on Oracle databases by 50 percent,” Pivato says.
CONTACT US To learn more about how EMC products, services, and solutions can help solve your business and IT challenges, contact your local representative or authorized reseller— or visit us at www.EMC.com.
EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, FAST, VNX, and VPLEX are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc., in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. © Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. 05/13 Customer Profile H11827
www.EMC.com
EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.
