VARACHHA CO-OPERATI VE B ANK LTD, S URAT CAS E S TUDY

We are extremely happy to announce that our Bank has successfully executed

the DR drill and has performed all banking operations for 2 days from the DR site

hosted in ESDS Data Center at Nasik. This technology will make bank's operation

more robust and now we can assure 24*7 uninterrupted banking operations to

our customers even in case of any disaster in Surat.

The Varachha Co-op Bank Ltd.Shri KanjibhaiBhalala, Chairman,

OUR CLIENT SPEAK

OUR CLIENT THE VARACHHA CO-OPERATIVE BANK LTD.

The Varachha bank, with more than 42,800 shareholders and 11 branches across

Gujarat, is a banking association which by virtue in stills a direct confidence in people of

Surat/Gujarat with their well-planned technical infrastructure to assist people in need. A

plan which is inclusive of attractive loans and deposit products, facilitated by online

tools like that of RTGS and NEFT, SMS and Internet Banking is already under operation in

the banking association established since 1995.

Fairly among the 1st to introduce Information Technology as against older banking

systems and driving technology at the forefront, Varachha bank displays high concerns

of reaching out to all customers and controlling authorities for their banking queries.

Varachha has acquired 9 ATMs over time which are deployed at various branches in an

interconnected assembly which would promote nationwide connectivity, when they

talk about accessing 20000 ATMs positioned by other nationalized and foreign banks

across the country. The belief is that Varachha would be singularly operating on a

mechanism that encourages such a wide spread link in the State of Gujarat.

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE-CONFRONTED BY VARACHHA

THE PROBLEM

Considerably, one of the facts came to surface while reviewing the banking activities

during the end-of-day(EOD). Unfortunately, high performance degradation was

observed during few working hours when the data on local database servers was

directed to the main database server i.e. the data-synchronization phase.

The Co-operative banking society has its banking applications and database hosted in its

own Datacenter. Remote branches of the bank own application server sat their sites,

where the banking applications are running and an identical trend is seen across all

branches. Remote branches also have a local copy of database server running on Oracle

Express edition. All the branches exhibit Point-to-Point connectivity to the main

Datacenter, comprehensibly where the main database server of the bank is located.

VARACHHA CO-OPERATIVE BANK LTD,SURAT

A Case Study on the

VARACHHA CO-OPERATIVE BANK LTD, SURAT

THE PROBLEM

Performance Degradation of

ATMs and Banking

Applications during EOD

Tedious Data Synchro-

nization Protocol

Threat of Physical Data loss

during data-sync

Varachha Bank executes disciplined data redundancy with a low RPO. In situation of a disaster, the bank has

established full responsibility against it and is now complacent against downtime matters.

What They ThinkAbout Us

A Case Study on the

VARACHHA CO-OPERATIVE BANK LTD, SURAT

An approximate of two hours was under consumption every day at the data

synchronization phase, where the sync of all data to the main database server was

targeted. As a matter of fact, routine transactions were initially stored on a database

installed on the local server at individual branch level. Once the transactions are

authorized, a copy of local database is moved to the main database in their Datacenter.

Now, this is exactly when the users' accounts would reflect the banking information at

the ATMs.

Uninterrupted service offering was dubious until a disciplined Solution was in place to ensure data synchronization and data protection in case of unforeseen incidents.

THE PROBLEMS OUTCOME

An exposed fact that the elaborate time taken for data migration & synchronization

caused the delay in distributing data at client's end. A clear server downtime of hours

coupled together, impeding ATM activity and along with it, generating a list of more than

200 archive logs. Database management ran into complexities, inferring the need of

system which would nullify their EOD downtime concerns and would take control of

complete DBA.

THE PROBLEMS ORIGIN

A detailed study with the help of our project expertise revealed that excessive load on

the main database server was generated as tens of hundreds of users tried to access

applications and fetch the data during the day-ending. Data access became problematic

the main database server took time to respond during those few hours as against the

rest of the day.

Considering the large amount of data generated within short amount of time at the EOD,

the defaulter protocol couldn't mitigate the delay encountered during such processing.

The P2P bandwidth between branches was also allegedly falling short. Therefore, higher

RPO.

A deeper understanding of the pain areas brought out the need of are solution which

commits to high RTO for fail over to DR Servers and a contrasting low RPO for data

synchronization ensuring business continuity. This is what we observed and

recommended.

Our findings drew attention to resources would remotely manage applications of our

client and double the data on a specified server located in a place apart from main DC of

Varachha.

The solution was almost ready with our Projects Team which would crack the problem.

THE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY - EXPLORED BY ESDS

THE PROBLEMS ORIGIN

Excessive load on the main

database server due to

complex data migration from

local

DB to main DB, all happening

co l lect ive ly dur ing few

combined hours at the day

ending.

Low Response T ime to

Queries due to weak P2P

Connectivity

Weak Database Replication

Protocol

Disaster Recovery P lan

unavailable.

THE PROBLEMS OUTCOME

Server Downtime during

working hours

ATMs at a standstill at the day-

ending

More than 200 Archive logs

generated per day

Need of a Managed DB

Solution

A Case Study on the

VARACHHA CO-OPERATIVE BANK LTD, SURAT

Periodic DR drills and bi-directional data synchronization offer resumption of operations if ever there was a disaster.

Audit strategy of DR drills saves users critical banking information through easy recovery channels.

High specification servers with standard editions and compulsory firewall security unveiled to Varachha hosted banking applications smoothly & safely.

Incoming traffic on the servers was fortified against threats arising from virus, worms, malware, DDoS attacks.

THE PROBLEMS ULTIMATE SOLUTION

An ideal solution was recommended to Varachha to help them with their vulnerable yet avoidable database conditions. We proposed a highly reliable and secured site where existing applications/ database of Varachha could be hosted under a fully managed environment, capable of continuously monitoring and managing their system architecture. In an accomplished server infrastructure at our Datacenter facility, we were premier in screening a solution exactly targeting their pain area and matching their requirement.

Information About DR

PROBLEMS ULTIMATE SOLUTION

Remote Database Setup

High availability DB and

Application Servers to beat

low response time

Periodic DR drills and bi-

d i r e c t i o n a l d a t a -

synchronization

Clear data-audit Strategy

Secure Servers and Network

S c a l a b i l i t y t o e n s u r e

consistent application utility

Monitoring tool-eMagic

Compatible DR Infrastructure

Immediate Data Availability in

disaster events

DR Fully Managed by ESDS

F l e x i b l e a n d S c a l a b l e

Resources

Continuous Monitoring at DR

Site

Affordable Solution

As promised, with periodic monitoring in the 24*7 work environment at our company, servers and networks of Varachha Co-op banking society are under keen observation. ESDSs proprietary data center management solution continuously monitors the servers and network at the DR site through eMagic Software eMagic is a wizard in monitoring end-to-end server and network connectivity and releases alerts after an intense checkup of OS, bandwidth, Databases.

An array of server health checkups are a routine activity up taken to improve quality of the service we offer to the bank and likewise all other clients.

http://www.esds.co.in/emagic/

Performance metrics of Varachha were prioritized using Point-to-Point Connectivity between the bank and our own Datacenter for a complete data replication suite.

A resilient channel was hence built in between the two consulting firms with P2P connectivity guaranteeing that in case of failure of operation of application/database server at one end (DC), the ADS, ATM and MISC servers can be accessed from the DR site.

The replication was strategically configured in a way that the P2P link between Primary DC and secondary DR site maintains a strong connectivity between the ATM servers & switches located at different places.

When the DC site is down including the P