Gulf Air has set up a disaster recovery centre (DRC) with the purpose of ensuring the continuity of the airline’s daily functions and providing a temporary workspace for its staff should the main facility be unavailable in emergency situations.

This in line with the airline’s aim to further strengthen its IT infrastructure and keeping it risk-free, a statement from Gulf Air said.

The new centre, commissioned recently, is located 15 kms away from its Muharraq headquarters, where the main data centre is housed currently.

Commissioning the new centre, Gulf Air CEO, Samer Majali, said: “It is no doubt that businesses today are increasingly dependent on IT systems to help manage and run their business operations effectively and efficiently.” 

“Gulf Air is no different as the smooth running of a majority of its critical business functions are now directly linked to the continuous availability of IT systems and business data,” he said.

“As such it is important that we ensure business continuity and a robust IT backup system is available in the event of any emergency situation arising out of natural and man-made disasters such as floods, fires, regional power outages and terrorist attacks.”

“The opening of the new DRC is part of our on-going initiative to secure and safeguard Gulf Air’s business assets and ensure continuity of its operations so that we serve our customers with consistent and high-level, uninterrupted services,” Majali added. 

Dr Jassim Haji, director of information technology, Gulf Air, said: “The centre has been set up using state-of-the-art technologies that enable real-time connectivity and data transfer from Gulf Air headquarters.”

“This means it has the capability of being activated at any time with no loss or disruption to Gulf Air business services. Even when not being used, the centre is operated remotely by experienced Gulf Air IT engineers around the clock, managing all systems and data.”
 
“The next phase of the project will be to implement the broader concept of business continuity planning by establishing how each Gulf Air business unit can best utilise the new centre and also identifying non-IT related needs,” Dr Haji added.

The DRC consists of a backup data centre with resilient power and communication links, and a business continuity room fully equipped to enable key Gulf Air users maintain critical business functions independent of the airline’s headquarters. – TradeArabia News Service