Leading Businesses in Azerbaijan Turn to IBM to Rein in Big Data

Azersun Holding and International Bank of Azerbaijan select IBM PureFlex, Storage solutions over HP and Cisco to better process, manage, and store swelling data volumes

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Feb 28, 2013, 08:00 ET

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its ongoing commitment to helping organizations in growth markets better manage their increasing Big Data challenges, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that two fast-growing businesses in Azerbaijan have selected IBM advanced systems and storage to help them more effectively process, manage and store their mounting data volumes.

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Azersun Holding, the largest producer and exporter in the country's food industry is leveraging IBM PureFlex Systems and IBM Storwize V7000 storage to process and store more than 188 TB of data. Meanwhile, the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), one of the largest banks in the country, with 36 branches and 95 service outlets, is improving access to critical business information with a new IBM Storwize V7000 storage infrastructure. The solutions were selected over HP, Cisco and EMC alternatives.

"We run a complex and geographically dispersed business, which contributes significantly to the GDP of Azerbaijan," said Ruslan Quliyev, Head of System & Network Administration Group, at Azersun Holding. "We needed an IT infrastructure to process our data in a way that equips us with a real-time snapshot of our business to back up our management decisions. We deployed the IBM solution and began production in a few hours, reducing the back-up time by a third, which is a great business advantage for us."

Azersun Holding, which has a nationwide network of leading-edge manufacturing facilities with high-volume production capacity, also boasts a large network of overseas supply and distribution offices. The company needed to link its ERP and sales management systems to enable retailers and partners to work with the same information at the same time. But to do that, it needed to be able to process its growing volumes of digital information much faster – and preferably reducing power consumption and not increasing the IT footprint along the way.

IBM outfitted the company with a high-performing, easily managed and efficient IBM PureFlex and IBM Storwize V7000 integrated solution. Chosen over HP and Cisco, the IBM solution has helped Azersun Holding increase business-critical information processing by 2.5 times, and reduce power consumption by 30 percent. As a result, Azersun is considering transferring several additional business applications to the integrated IBM solution.

IBA Gets Serious About Big Data Storage
Headquartered in Baku, IBA is one of the largest banks in Azerbaijan, offering a wide range of high-quality banking services in branches and outlets in 40 cities across the country. To improve access to critical business information, the bank needed a higher-performance storage infrastructure. Having considered a variety of alternatives, including solutions from HP and EMC, the bank selected the IBM Storwize V7000.

"We wanted to ensure the highest quality of customer service which depends on the availability of IT systems and its performance," said Yalcin Taghizadeh, IT director of the International Bank of Azerbaijan. "We selected the IBM Storwize V7000 because it can handle our growing flow of information reliably and securely."

All told, the IBM Storwize V7000 solution improved the bank's storage utilization, helped centralize and simplify management, and through virtualization technologies, increased capacity. As a result, IBA was able to expand and easily manage its ever-increasing data volumes.

The deals in the Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan are a boost to IBM's business in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region where it is currently expanding its operations in line with a growing base of clients and partners. Azerbaijan has some of the IT industry's fastest growth rates in the region reaching almost 16 percent in 2012 according to government sources. As part of a major initiative to capture new business opportunities and expand its reach, IBM is increasing its presence in the fastest growing markets in the world.

For more information on IBM PureSystems visit: www.ibm.com/press/pure and for more on IBM Storage visit: www.ibm.com/storage

About Azersun
For more information about Azersun, please visit: http://www.azersun.az/en_index.asp

About IBA
For more information about IBA, please visit: http://www2.ibar.az/index.php?lang=en

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SOURCE IBM