The Public Pension Agency (PPA), an entity within Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance, has implemented an Oracle database technology to gain maximum availability with active/active configuration across two separate sites.

In addition to Oracle SuperCluster, PPA installed a range of products including Oracle Exadata X4-2, Oracle GoldenGate, Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c and Oracle Enterprise Manager OpsCenter 12c.

Installing a cloud solution was also part of the plan, as was replacing legacy hardware with the latest Oracle engineered systems, a statement said.

PPA’s Unix environment was consolidated into a single system and a private Unix cloud environment created. Oracle Database on SuperCluster now runs with fewer cores and more powerful processors, allowing the PPA to minimise the number of Oracle software licenses needed.

Oracle SuperCluster also provides high availability for Oracle E-Business Suite, with SuperClusters in two different locations running Oracle E-Business Suite in active/passive mode using Oracle DataGuard technology.

Thamer al Harbi, country leader Oracle Saudi Arabia said: “Oracle SuperCluster, Oracle’s most powerful Oracle Database Machine, is an integrated server, storage, networking and software system that provides maximum end-to-end database and application performance and minimal initial and ongoing support and maintenance effort and complexity at the lowest total cost of ownership. It is ideal for large scale, transaction intensive applications and delivers extreme performance at a very low total cost of ownership.”

Faraj Aljaeed, Operations & Network manager, PPA said: “Oracle technology has provided important benefits to PPA’s IT infrastructure and the implementation has been quick and simple.”

“Oracle SuperCluster has enabled us to reduce operational issues, and adopt new business models with greater business agility, better use of resources, less capital expense and increased speed in response to unforeseen events.

“It is now easy to get the latest updates; we have improved information security, and our deployment time has been decreased from years to months.  Our risk is lower with a subscription-based cost model and we also now have Automatic Software Integration. We are proud to be the first government body in KSA to successfully implement Oracle SuperCluster,” concluded Aljaeed.

PPA is now able to comply with the international standards for selecting, implementing and monitoring the lifecycle for software ISO/IEC 12207 by having Oracle production and testing and development environments (software development methodology).

PPA was established to address all retirement affairs in the kingdom and is responsible for administering civil and military pension schemes. – TradeArabia News Service