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Dubai Investments Selects Blue Coats ADN Infrastructurefor WAN Optimization, Web Security and Policy ControlBlue Coat ProxySG Appliances, WebFilter and ProxyClient(TM) Optimize Application

Delivery, Enable Direct-to-the-Net Services and Contain WAN Bandwidth Costs

Background

Dubai Investments is the largest investment company publicly traded on the Dubai stock

market. The group consists of 46 subsidiary companies most of which are located in

the United Arab Emirates and the rest across the GCC. With a vast number of around

2000 PC users, a key objective was to create an effective shared services centre. In the

year 2007, a scalable, secure and high performance data centre was set up with the

intention of subsequently connecting all the subsidiaries. For those remote sites whichcould not be connected via the Internet (IP or VPN) on account of huge data trafc, it was

decided to connect through an MPLS network. At the start, 3 major ofce locations were

connected to MPLS the Dubai Investments head ofce, the Festival Tower ofce and

the Marmum Dairy Farm, off Al Ain road.

The Challenge

With MPLS connectivity, application performance took a major hit. The IT team was faced

with 2 options either increase the WAN link bandwidth or optimize data trafc through

WAN Optimization.

Internal Evaluation Process

The IT team at Dubai Investments evaluates all major infrastructure projects based on

a guiding principle called ReCAPS: Re-Reliability of the solution based on parameters

like fault tolerance levels, disaster recovery etc; C- Capacity requirement and speed

of scaling up; A- Accounting by an IT Governance Committee which looks at the cost-

benet and total cost of ownership (TCO); P-Performance and S-Security of the solution.

After a thorough study through ReCAPS, it was decided to go in for WAN Optimization.

One of the key deciding factors was the benet of having more security control. Security

was a major concern, as previously Windows and anti-virus updates, backups and group

policies were managed locally by each subsidiary, which made control difcult. WAN

Optimization made it possible to schedule all these tasks centrally.

Vendor Selection The Blue Coat Advantage

Inline with Dubai Investments policy, there were more than 3 vendors including Cisco,

Juniper and Riverbed that were evaluated for their ADN infrastructure solutions. Therst criteria included product related aspects like compression, optimisation algorithm,

caching engine, security etc, and whether the vendors technical capabilities matched

the client requirements. The second was a corporate assessment in terms of customer

references, nancial stability etc and the third was cost. Mr. Manoharan K, IT Advisor of

Dubai Investments says, Blue Coat was a clear winner on all three fronts, especially

pricing which was way better than the other vendors. Dubai Investments carried out

Proof of Concept (POC) with a few of the vendor solutions. Mr. Manoharan explains that

the level and quality of support extended by Blue Coat was another factor that tipped

the scales in the companys favour. From the time of initiating discussions, Blue Coats

response time was very quick, the information supplied was comprehensive and the

interaction was very pleasant. Blue Coat was one step ahead of competition.

Organization

Dubai Investments

UAE

www.dubaiinvestments.com

IndustryFinancial

Challenge

Accelerate key business

applications at 3 major ofce

locations, while reducing

bandwidth usage and provide Web

and WAN security and control

Solution

> Blue Coat ProxySG Appliances,

WebFilter and ProxyClientoptimize Application Delivery and

Performance

Data and Network is secure

Online transaction time

has reduced

Increased productivity

Enhanced the introduction of

new business applications

Customer Profle

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As compared to other ADN

infrastructure vendors, BlueCoat was a clear winner on all

3 criteria product technical

capabilities, corporate prole

and cost. We are very happy with

the outcome of the Blue Coat

implementation and look forward

to our next project with them

involving PacketShaper.

- Mr. Manoharan K

IT Advisor of Dubai Investments

Before the WAN Optimization project, Dubai Investments had already installed Blue

Coat WebFilter in its data centre, by which the company was able to control and secure

Web trafc. It is the best solution available and we are very happy. Be it HTTPS or B2B

trafc, media streaming or VOIP, we have complete and granular control and the reportsgenerated are excellent, says Mr. Manoharan. The WAN Optimization solution offered by

Blue Coat was easily integrated with the existing WebFilter solution at a marginal cost,

enabling diversion of trafc with a high degree of security.

The WAN Optimization project was completed by Blue Coat in 1 month. After project

completion, Blue Coat imparted training to the IT Networking Staff at Dubai Investments,

resulting in a very satisfactory knowledge transfer. Mr. Manoharan is condent that the

IT team is capable of conguring appliances themselves should the need arise of adding

additional links.

A Reason to Smile

Although ROI cannot be calculated in an objective manner on a cost-revenue model, as

is typical with most IT infrastructure projects, Mr. Manoharan explains that there are

plenty of intangible benets that have arisen from the Blue Coat implementation. The

data and network is highly safe and secure resulting in peace of mind for the IT staff.

The application performance has improved drastically. Time taken to complete online

transactions have shortened resulting in increased productivity and reduced frustration.

Better application performance has also encouraged the IT team to implement more

business applications like SharePoint for budgeting and consolidation. One of the big

advantages was also being able to create two policies for mobile clients by installing

WebFilter on roaming laptops one for home use, allowing users exibility to listen

to music, watch movies etc and another for ofce use when he/ she connects to the

corporate network.

IT Roadmap

The plan in terms of IT infrastructure now is to connect many more subsidiariesincluding the disaster recovery site and implement WAN Optimization in all these newly

connected sites. The company also intends implementing Blue Coat PacketShaper with

the objective of reserving bandwidth for mission critical real-time applications like video

conferencing which the company has plans of introducing in the future.

Around 8 months ago, Dubai Investments started work on introducing the concept

of cloud computing. This vision is to create a utility computing platform a pool of

IT resources where each business head is given a control panel which will allow self

provisioning, thin provisioning and automatic conguration. Considering there are 46

subsidiaries, this is a very ambitious project which is expected to be completed in the

second quarter of 2010. Dubai Investments is also preparing itself for ISO 27001 and is

targeting the end of 2009/ rst quarter 2010 for acquiring certication. Quite a few risks

under the connectivity area of the risk assessment framework have been addressed

through Blue Coats solutions.

About Dubai Investments

Dubai Investments is the largest investment company publicly traded on the Dubai stock

market. It invests worldwide in viable and protable companies. It has a paid up capital

of AED 3.2 billion, 46 subsidiary companies and over 23,500 shareholders.

Copyright 2009 Blue Coat Systems, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this document may be reproduced by any means nor translated to any electronic medium without the written consent of Blue Coat Systems, Inc.

Specications are subject to change without notice. Information contained in this document is believed to be accurate and reliable, however, Blue Coat Systems, Inc. assumes no responsibility for its use. Blue Coat, ProxySG, PacketShaper

and IntelligenceCenter are registered trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and worldwide. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. v.CS-DUBAIINVESTMENTS-v1-1209

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Customer Profle