Sberbank-AST (DPC TrustInfo)

The Sberbank-AST electronic platform organized reserve DPC which for it was developed by I-Teco company. During the project duplicative virtual computing infrastructure based on cloud solutions of I-Teco Enterprise Cloud, the equipment of HP and capacities of data center TrustInfo was unrolled. This solution provides instant scaling of resources or switching to virtual DPC in case of emergency on the main platform. I-Teco executed the project on creation of a reserve data processing center (DPC) for electronic marketplace of Sberbank – Sberbank-AST. During the project implemented in only one week duplicative virtual computing infrastructure based on cloud solutions of I-Teco Enterprise Cloud, the equipment of HP and capacities of data center TrustInfo was unrolled. This solution provides instant scaling of resources or switching to virtual DPC in case of emergency on the main platform^[1].

Sberbank-AST is the largest electronic platform for the organization of biddings within the system of public procurements. This status requires the highest level of reliability and fault tolerance of the IT infrastructure necessary for ensuring smooth operation. Besides, Sberbank-AST is 100% subsidiary of JSC Sberbank of Russia, so high requirements in the field of use of IT, as well as to all divisions and subsidiary companies of Sberbank extend to the company.

Problem definition

The Sberbank-AST electronic platform works more than three years. During this time the volume of the performed operations on purchase and sales of goods and services both for state, and for commercial structures, significantly increased. Growth of loadings became especially we will feel when Sberbank-AST it was selected by the Government of the Russian Federation as the all-Russian operator of electronic biddings. For ensuring smooth operation with the new level of requirements Sberbank-AST had to increase significantly reliability and high-speed performance of the IT infrastructure. The scenario of use of resources of virtual DPC allowing to increase quickly the volume of the consumed resources was developed for the period of peak loads; after passing of a peak load everything would return to a normal operation mode.

For the solution of such task it was necessary to select between two ways of increase in efficiency: traditional and the innovation. The traditional way is an accumulation of own computing powers, and the innovation – creation of reserve IT infrastructure within virtual DPC. For decision-making the company compared these approaches on the volume of necessary investments and level of reliability.

As it appeared, in case of virtual DPC Sberbank-AST can achieve powerful benefits. It is possible to receive reliable "backup" of IT infrastructure in the shortest possible time; it is essential to reduce the investment volume into IT as costs for virtual DPC are significantly lower; to quickly receive any volume of the resources necessary for smooth operation in the order; get the guaranteed qualified technical support from provider of the solution, according to conditions of SLA. Having analyzed proposals of different providers, Sberbank-AST made the decision on creation of virtual DPC based on the data center TrustInfo which is under control of Servionica company – I-Teco subsidiary company.

Virtual DPC – for the aid to real

In December, 2012 the Sberbank-AST company began the project on reservation of IT infrastructure of electronic marketplace based on data center TrustInfo, the second in value among commercial data centers of Russia. The virtual DPC was unrolled on the I-Teco Enterprise Cloud platform developed by I-Teco (now – the eCloud brand). Its basis are the HP solutions created taking into account specifics of cloud services.

The solution proposed by I-Teco and Servionica was selected for a number of reasons. First, Sberbank-AST and I-Teco companies already have a successful experience of collaboration in construction of own data center of marketplace. Secondly, examination of I-Teco in the field of complex projects on virtualization of computing powers for the large companies is recognized the market (according to rating J’son&Partners, I-Teco is the leader of the Russian IaaS market). Thirdly, a role was played also by existence of reliable and easily scalable hardware-software HP platform based on which the hybrid solution for Sberbank-AST is deployed.

At design of virtual DPC specialists relied on successful experience of the large projects which are already implemented by Servionika for the companies from the different industries and a public sector. Among their projects appear: creation of a cloud service for a corporate information system of resource management of IDGC of Centre; migration of reserve DPC of Sviaz-Bank; provision of services of data backup according to the SaaS model for Norilsk Nickel, Transaero, Sberbank of Russia and Rosreestr based on the Russia's first "cloud" agreement between I-Teco and Symantec companies.

Solution description

Computing powers provide BL460G8 blade-HP servers, the disk space is provided by storage systems 3PAR 10000. All solution components are duplicated. The platform intended for the large and high-loaded systems ensure safe functioning of key business applications in a cloud environment, guarantees safety and fast data availability.

The server architecture of HP BladeSystem means use as blocks for creation of infrastructure of baskets or shelves. The constructive basis a blade systems of HP is formed by regiments s7000 and s3000, the slots having the built-in infrastructure of a power supply, cooling and containing for server and switching modules. Such architecture provides compactness, scalability, increases ease of service and reduces load of supply systems.

Storage systems of HP 3PAR of StoreServ Storage differ from traditional disk arrays. First, there are about eight HP 3PAR controllers on Mesh-Active technology with a possibility of service by each of all of them of logical volumes of a system. Secondly, the part of functions is transferred on dedicated chips of ASIC which allow to select hardware capacity and to reduce the volume of disk space. Thirdly, the disk space becomes virtualized, and physical disks are considered as the general pool of resources. Fourthly, due to Persistent Cache technology the cache memory is mirrored on several alternative controllers and not lost in case of an exit of one of them out of operation.

As a result of everything in one week based on eCloud the hybrid environment for the reserve IT infrastructure Sberbank-AST providing operability of the company in case of refusal of the main computing powers was unrolled. The platform involves more than 200 virtual processors and about 1 Tb of RAM. Potential for further scaling of the solution quickly was demanded: in 2013 Servionika executed for Sberbank-AST the project on performance improvement of "cloud" taking into account the growing loads of the main and virtual infrastructures of the company.

Project Result

Use of eCloud and platform HP solutions allowed to provide required functionality and performance of the reserve platform in the shortest possible time. Thanks to full redundancy of IT infrastructure Sberbank-AST increased the level of availability of the information systems supporting work of electronic biddings; provided the continuity of business processes and fault tolerance of IT infrastructure at that level which is necessary for smooth operation of a system of public procurements.

"Transfer of IT infrastructure and business processes to "cloud" based on HP solutions allows to reduce risks of crisis situations, ensuring stable functioning of our IT infrastructure and fast transition to reserve capacities in case of failures in work of primary servers. It is important for ensuring necessary level of availability of information systems during the periods of carrying out electronic biddings", – Smirnov Victor, the deputy CEO for IT of Sberbank-AST Ltd noted.

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