Kuwait’s KNPC refines its digital transformation with VMware

With Kuwait’s national Vision 2035 calling for increased productivity across all sectors, it’s vital that the oil industry, which has been the economy’s foundation for decades, modernises as well, allowing it to reach maximum efficiency and support diversification initiatives.

“In Kuwait’s oil and gas sector, opportunities for new projects appear quickly and require sophisticated IT resources, with a rapid turnaround and the ability to develop powerful customised applications,” said Naji Al-Marri, manager, information technology, Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).

He added that KNPC is already working on several megaprojects, including a strategic plan to expand and improve the Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries into a single integrated complex with an 800,000 BPD capacity. Additional initiatives include a sulphur handing project and a fifth gas train.

To support these ambitious plans, KNPC deployed its own private cloud in two data centres in Kuwait, with a Software-Defined Datacentre (SDDC) approach, built on VMware solutions, virtualising compute, storage, network and security layers for maximum agility, in addition to reduced cost and complexity. Furthermore, KNPC’s IT team operates both sites in Active-Active configuration, allowing them to provide high resiliency and Service Level Agreements to the business units.

“By embracing a cloud-first approach with VMware, KNPC has boosted its agility, efficiency, and security to set in motion a new era of digital transformation,” said KNPC spokesperson and deputy CEO for admin and commercial affairs, Ahed Al-Khurayif. “The company has already achieved more than 95 per cent datacentre virtualisation, reducing its datacentre footprint by 70 per cent, and realising total cost savings of more than 50 per cent over three years, while enabling the rapid launch of modern applications.”

Read: Kuwait posts record $36bn deficit on oil price drop, virus

With cybersecurity, a growing concern in the energy sector, VMware’s solutions, including NSX, has helped boost KNPC’s security by providing complete protection throughout the network. VMware cloud foundation also helps boost KNPC’s security by automating the lifecycle management of all software components across the organisation’s infrastructure, which means security updates occur automatically, as and when required.

Last year, Dubai-based BIOS Middle East was approved to offer VMware SD-WAN to customers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“By introducing VMware SD-WAN as part of our network-as-a-service offerings, customers in the region will gain better visibility, security, automation and improved performance for its applications across distributed locations and clouds, at lower costs. Besides, they will receive the benefits of having a provider that has a robust cloud footprint that leverages data centres in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and soon Jeddah,” said Dominic Docherty, managing director, BIOS Middle East.

Read: Dubai-based BIOS Middle East adds VMware SD-WAN to managed services portfolio