CUSTOMER SUCCESS

HDFC Bank

HDFC Bank Capitalizes with Data Protection and Storage

Management Solutions from Symantec

Company Profile
As one of India’s largest financial institutions, HDFC Bank
HDFC Bank (www.hdfcbank.com),
relies on data protection and storage management based in Mumbai, India, has INR45
billion (US$1.03 billion) in assets
solutions from Symantec to help ensure its data and its and operates nearly 500 branches
business-critical applications are available around the in over 200 cities across the country.

clock. With data growing at a clip of 50 percent annually, Industry

the flexibility and automation features in VERITAS Storage Financial Services
Foundation™ software help HDFC Bank to keep up Solution
with demand while controlling costs and improving staff • Business Continuity
• Data Protection
productivity by 10 percent. With VERITAS NetBackup™ • Storage Management
software, HDFC is able to speed the backup process—
which translates into a 50 percent improvement in data
center staff productivity—and minimize the time that data
is unavailable. When the various operational efficiency
gains are tallied, HDFC Bank has realized a 98 percent
return on investment since the software solution was
implemented in 2003.

Robust data protection to meet rapid business growth

“VERITAS provides a The numbers for just about everything in India—from people to currency—
unique knowledge run high. In fact, languages spoken in the Indian Subcontinent have devel-
base that we are able oped their own lexicon for large numbers. It comes as little surprise, then,
to draw on as needed, that storage management and data protection in this part of the world,
and VERITAS Technical especially in financial services, is a monumental challenge.
Support is excellent.
As we move inevitably HDFC Bank was established in 1995, when India first began privatizing
towards 24-hour-a- financial institutions. With strong economic growth in the country over the
day banking, our back- past decade, the numbers of branches, customers, employees, suppliers, IT
up windows have all applications—and the terabytes of data that they produce—are growing at
but disappeared.” a breakneck pace. The bank has nearly 500 branches and is adding new
locations at the rate of three per week, of which some are open 24 hours a
Ram Sambasivan day, seven days a week.
Vice President, Data Centers
HDFC Bank Managed by Mr. Ram Sambasivan, vice president of data centers, HDFC
Bank maintains five data centers with 400-plus servers running more than
50 applications that transfer 3.5 terabytes of data per day to the bank’s
nearly 500 branches. The applications (approximately 23 of which are
business critical) and the data supported by them must be available to
users by 6:00 a.m. every day.
CUSTOMER SUCCESS

“Our data center at Chandivali,

Mumbai is spread out across three SOLUTION AT A GLANCE
A data protection and floors,” Sambasivan says. “Before we
storage management implemented the software solution
Business Drivers
from Symantec (formerly VERITAS
solution based on Software), the operators had to run all
• Improve operational efficiencies
and staff productivity
Storage Foundation over the place to conduct backups.
• Ensure business continuity
Sometimes they missed a specific
and NetBackup is command or inadvertently inputted
• Automate manual tasks

helping HFDC Bank the wrong ones. It was very time

Technology Challenges
consuming. So, we embarked on a jour-
to accommodate 50% ney to ensure 100 percent reliability,
• Accommodate data volume growth
• Make data available to customers at
annual data growth consistency of data, and applications to
branches and clearing house 24x7
make our operation more efficient.”
while achieving • Centralize management of IT operations

operational efficiency Centralized storage management Products

with VERITAS Storage Foundation
gains equating to and NetBackup
• VERITAS NetBackup™ 5.1 Enterprise
Server
98% ROI since 2003. • VERITAS Storage Foundation™
“We considered a lot of solutions and
(Volume Manager and File System)
selected VERITAS,” Sambasivan says.
“Not only does our rapid expansion
Technology Environment
place heavy demands on our people
• Storage: Hitachi Thunder 9570V and
and systems, but the growth in our
Hitachi Lightning 9960V Storage
own institution, and in the industry at
Systems; Sun StorEdge L700 tape
large, means our staffing resources
library; Sun StorEdge 9960 system
are constantly evolving. Consequently,
and A5200 and T3 disk arrays; HP
automating as many processes as
StorageWorks MSL6030 tape library;
possible was imperative and VERITAS
StorageTek L700 tape library
Storage Foundation offers the broad-
• Server Platform: Sun Fire V880 and
est range of automation features.”
V480 servers running the Solaris
Operating System, Dell PowerEdge
“We considered a lot of solu- To ensure the data is always avail- 2850 and 3850 servers running
able, HDFC Bank relies on VERITAS Microsoft Windows 2000 and
tions and selected VERITAS. NetBackup software. As the bank Microsoft Windows NT, HP
Not only does our rapid migrates to NetBackup 5.1, it will be AlphaServer running Tru 64 UNIX,

expansion place heavy able to take advantage of advanced IBM AS/400 running Linux operating
features such as Advanced Client system
demands on our people and Instant Recovery, which delivers an • Databases: Microsoft SQL Server;
systems, but the growth in automated, integrated, snapshot Sybase 12.5 Adaptive Server
solution that reduces backup time • Business Applications: Support retail
our own institution, and in and thereby speeds time to recovery. liabilities, retail assets, cash manage-
the industry at large, means ment, corporate,
treasury, depository, and other busi-
our staffing resources are “The functionality of NetBackup 5.1
ness funcitons
constantly evolving.” is absolutely necessary for us to sur-
• Operating Systems: UNIX, Microsoft
vive,” says Sambasivan. “We’ll also
Windows 2000, Linux
Ram Sambasivan be taking advantage of [VERITAS]
Vice President, Data Centers FlashSnap, so we can make point-in-
Services
HDFC Bank time copies of our business-critical
• VERITAS Extended Support
data available off-host. That will not
only help in ensuring backup and
business continuity, but also in
testing applications and all other
processing needs.”
 HDFC BANK

“From the development of

BUSINESS VALUE AND TECHNICAL BENEFITS
our architecture, through our
implementation and servicing Return on Investment
our day-to-day needs, VERITAS • 98% ROI achieved since installation in 2003

continues to support us well.” Productivity

• 10% productivity improvement for data center staff via Storage Foundation
Ram Sambasivan • 50% productivity improvement for data center staff via NetBackup
Vice President, Data Centers • Greater flexibility of IT resources
HDFC Bank
Scalability
• 50% growth in data volumes without increasing backup time

Critical to the success of HDFC Bank’s Flexibility

business continuity plan is also the • Accommodating rapid business growth that includes three new branches weekly
guidance it receives as part of
its VERITAS Extended Support agreement.
“From the development of our architec-
ture, through our implementation and When all of the numbers are added
servicing our day-to-day needs, together, the operational efficiency
VERITAS continues to support us well,” gains achieved via NetBackup and
Sambasivan says. Storage Foundation software equate
to a 98 percent return on investment
since the two products were deployed
Banking on results that scale in 2003. “VERITAS solutions provide
By making full utilization of the automa- us with an easy interface and reliable
tion features in VERITAS Storage results,” Sambasivan says. “VERITAS
Foundation software, HDFC Bank has provides a unique knowledge base
been able to improve the productivity of that we are able to draw on as needed,
data center staff by 10 percent. Backup and VERITAS Technical Support is
times have held steady, even though excellent. As we move inevitably
backup volume has increased by nearly towards 24-hour-a-day banking, our
50 percent. backup windows have all but
disappeared. The automation and
flexibility that VERITAS Storage
The vaulting and scheduling features in Foundation and NetBackup provide
VERITAS NetBackup software have also across all our platforms, helps
been beneficial for HDFC Bank. “Now, my us keep up with the demands the
tape librarian’s life is much easier,” business makes on us in IT.”
explains Sambasivan. “He doesn’t need
to manually check the tapes any more.
Rather, the tapes automatically eject, and
he simply refers to the ‘pick’ list to know
which tapes to insert. Scheduling is
much simpler too. The staff doesn’t need
to manually select the folders and files;
there are no errors and nothing is over-
looked or clumsily done. All they have to
do is keep an eye on the Activity Monitor.”
Through these efficient operational
enhancements, Sambasivan estimates
that data center productivity has
improved by 50 percent.

Copyright © 2005 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, NetBackup, Storage Foundation, and VERITAS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation
or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.