Dubai Mercantile Exchange chooses EMC to protect data

Energy futures exchange Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) has announced plans to adopt business continuity systems from storage provider EMC in order to protect its exchange operations data and ensure that its electronic trading floor, DME Direct, is able to maintain continuous operation.

Launched on May 1 2007, DME - a joint venture between Dubai's Tatweer and the New York Mercantile Exchange - required a system that could maintain high levels of resilience and also incorporated data recovery functionality.

EMC provided a storage infrastructure based on two EMC Symmetrix DMX-3 storage systems to handle both storage and data recovery duties. One is based at DME directly in the Dubai International Financial Centre, while the second is located at an off-site disaster recovery centre. The system is controlled through EMC information management software, which is capable of enterprise-wide backup and recovery.

Ahmad AlQaizi, head of information systems and technology for DME commented: "The DME is establishing a futures market that will bridge the gap between business hours in the world's major oil trading centres of New York, London and the Far East. As such, and to meet the regulatory requirements of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, we will have to maintain the highest standards of information management. EMC's information infrastructure solutions that we have deployed enable us to meet those high standards by ensuring that our information is stored and managed in an optimally secure way."

Mohammad Amin, EMC's general manager for the Middle East and North Africa, added: "The DME has embraced the concept of information lifecycle management (ILM) - storing and managing data based on its importance to the business. EMC is delighted to work with DME on building its ILM strategy."