The Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC Bank), one of India's premier banking and mortgage institutions, is using Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions from Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade®) to fulfill its mission of becoming a leading global bank.
Utilizing 4 Gbit/sec Brocade director-class solutions as the foundation of its SAN, the Mumbai-based bank today is storing and retrieving three terabytes of mission-critical financial data each day 30 percent faster than with its previous storage infrastructure.
This level of performance enables the bank to more rapidly and reliably process two million financial transactions every day - such as deposits, withdrawals, and check clearing - enhancing both its customer service and its competitiveness in international markets. The new Brocade SAN infrastructure further helps HDFC Bank to comply in full with India's banking mandates demanding the archiving of key financial data for seven years, even as the institution adds two new branch locations weekly to its 680 offices in 228 cities across India. By streamlining its storage operations in this manner, HDFC Bank's Brocade infrastructure improves productivity and reduces operating costs such that the institution projects a return on investment in only one year.
"With tight regulatory mandates over financial data worldwide, we needed a reliable, high-performance storage infrastructure that only Brocade could deliver if we are to succeed at home and abroad," said Harish Shetty, Vice President for HDFC Bank. "Brocade redesigned our infrastructure according to our business needs and objectives, giving us the storage throughput, scalability, and control we required to become a world-class financial institution."
A Complete Storage Solution
HDFC Bank's new consolidated Brocade SAN replaces a decentralized storage infrastructure that impacted both the institution's compliance and service delivery functions. The legacy SANs had grown on an ad hoc basis, with edge switches and multivendor storage systems added as HDFC Bank endeavored to keep pace with burgeoning volumes of financial transactions. The system eventually became a complex collection of devices that were increasingly difficult to manage. Moreover, the complex growth and management of the SANs had started causing delays in business processes throughout the enterprise, an intolerable outcome for a bank that prides itself on customer service.
To properly align its expansion with its business processes, HDFC Bank sought a centralized SAN solution that could scale as the bank grew continuously across India and around the world. After carefully reviewing its options, HDFC Bank selected Brocade over other SAN vendors for its proven range of market-leading 4 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel SAN solutions and its industry expertise. It deployed Brocade SilkWorm® 48000 Directors for the core of its new consolidated SAN, and Brocade SilkWorm 4100 Switches for its server edges. The consolidated SAN hosts all application servers and storage devices, which are connected to the SAN according to various host department requirements. Rather than stream all traffic through the core, data flows between users and storage systems through the most direct routes, conserving bandwidth throughout the SAN fabric while enhancing efficiency and performance.
In addition, the new SAN infrastructure offers nearly double the available SAN ports than the old infrastructure. With 1488 high-speed ports and the seamless ability to grow ports and bandwidth, the Brocade 4 Gbit/sec SAN solution has helped ensure extraordinary scalability to support HDFC Bank's rapid growth. HDFC Bank also relies on Brocade management tools to simplify administration while gaining greater control over its storage infrastructure.
"By assessing our business requirements and delivering a complete solution, not just individual products, Brocade designed and provided an enterprise-class storage infrastructure that ensures we meet regulatory compliance and fully supports our global expansion," said Shetty. "In meeting our needs so effectively, Brocade demonstrated why it's the foremost provider of SAN solutions. Brocade is more than a vendor; it is a trusted partner committed to our continued success."