Information2’s core data replication and protection products, i2COOPY and i2Availability, have successfully created a fast, efficient, and streamlined disaster recovery application management system spanning 410 kilometers for Zain, a renowned telecom operator in Saudi Arabia.

Zain, a leading telecom operator among the three major players in Saudi Arabia, has a rich history and extensive business presence in the Middle East and Africa. Its business covers multiple countries, providing diverse services such as wireless communications, telephony, data, and video communications to tens of millions of telecom mobile users.

To ensure the continuity of telecom services, Zain has established a production center in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, and a disaster recovery center in Dammam, a city in the eastern region. With a distance of 410 kilometers between the two locations, Zain urgently needs to implement disaster recovery via dedicated lines between them to ensure that critical systems such as FM, ITNMS, and PM can quickly execute application-level disaster recovery switching in extreme situations such as war, terrorist attacks, vandalism, misoperations, and downtime. Additionally, Zain requires real-time data synchronization at the application software layer and Oracle database layer to ensure data integrity and consistency.

Addressing Zain’s actual needs, Information2 carefully designed the following solution:

Install a control machine on the Linux/Windows hosts in the Dammam disaster recovery center and utilize i2COOPY for real-time data backup. This solution ensures that the latest data is always available for immediate recovery without a backup time window, significantly improving data availability and security.

Simultaneously, Information2 monitors the application high availability management monitoring platform through the control machine and employs i2Availability for high availability system disaster recovery. This solution enables rapid manual group switching in case of any issues with the source production host, achieving seamless business takeover and effectively avoiding business interruptions due to source-side problems.

Firstly, it achieves data synchronization across heterogeneous platforms: Information2’s solution successfully breaks down barriers between physical servers of different models and configurations and virtualization platforms from different vendors, enabling data synchronization between host layers and providing a solid foundation for Zain’s disaster recovery system.

Secondly, it offers simplified management and graphical switching: The I2 Solution console is based on a B/S architecture with a user-friendly interface and easy operation. It provides multiple functions such as manual, automatic, and group switching, making Zain’s disaster recovery management more flexible and efficient. This solution not only reduces management costs but also improves the accuracy and speed of disaster recovery switching, providing robust support for the continuity of Zain’s telecom services.

Customer Evaluation

The i2COOPY and i2Availability products not only achieve real-time data synchronization and business high availability between two locations spanning 410 kilometers but also simplify management processes and ensure business continuity, serving as an important guarantee for the stable operation of our telecom services.

By deeply exploring customer needs, Information2 assists China Mobile’s Cloud Capability Center in overcoming technical barriers, achieving a smooth transition and upgrade of business systems, and promoting the in-depth development of enterprise digital transformation.

With the rapid development of cloud computing technology, the mobile cloud migration project has become a crucial step in enterprise digital transformation. However, this project has high technical requirements and involves significant technical complexity in applications and configurations, while also facing technical and business risks. To ensure that business systems can migrate to the new platform smoothly and without risk, the project team must follow a cautious and meticulous work principle, formulate reasonable testing and switchover plans, and implement migrations gradually.

This project aims to migrate more than 14,000 cloud hosts, including over 4,000 enterprises and more than 100 China Mobile’s own businesses. The migration covers ECS hosts, RDS databases, OSS object storage, microservices, IoT, and various common and uncommon databases. The project faces significant challenges due to high technical complexity, a large number of hosts, a broad customer base, and short downtime windows.

To address these challenges, Information2 provides a comprehensive solution for the mobile cloud migration project with its professional online migration software and technical services. The project migration is divided into multiple phases, including migration service testing, production business cutover and online operation, and acceptance. The main work includes migration installation testing, cloud storage space allocation, software package power-up joint debugging testing, production business application data migration, and going online after rigorous testing.

During project implementation, the Information2 team first conducted migration deployment, configured the production cloud host migration strategy, and installed clients. Subsequently, data migration was gradually performed according to the migration strategy. Technically, the cutover and operation of the new system underwent system joint debugging testing, pre-switchover preparations, formulation of switchover emergency recovery plans, pre-switchover data migration testing, formal switchover, and post-switchover monitoring. Each step was meticulously planned and strictly executed to reduce risks.

Reduced Technical Difficulty: The application of Information2’s online migration software effectively lowers the technical difficulty during the migration process and improves migration efficiency.

Migration Efficiency Improvement: With Information2’s professional technical services, the project team can quickly respond to various complex situations and ensure that the migration work proceeds smoothly as planned.

Customer Satisfaction Enhancement: Information2’s professional solution and service quality have won wide recognition from customers, improving customer satisfaction.

Smooth Business Transition: After rigorous testing and gradual migration, the business systems successfully achieved a smooth transition without any risks or failures.

Accelerated Digital Transformation: The successful implementation of the mobile cloud migration project provides strong support for the enterprise’s digital transformation and accelerates its progress into the cloud computing era.

Customer Evaluation

Information2 demonstrated exceptional professional competence and service quality in the mobile cloud migration project. Their online migration software and technical services not only reduced the technical difficulty of the migration but also improved migration efficiency. Throughout the migration process, the Information2 team maintained a high level of responsibility and professionalism, ensuring a smooth transition of our business.

In the wave of digital transformation, the billing system, as the core of operators’ business, places immense importance on its high availability and data security. China Mobile, in collaboration with Information2, has successfully built an efficient and reliable disaster recovery system through innovative cross-cluster semantic-level replication technology. This not only enhances the stability and performance of the billing system but also provides a solid guarantee for the sustainable development of the operator’s business.

The billing system, as a crucial part of the operator’s business, needs to ensure 24/7 high availability to guarantee service continuity and user satisfaction. However, in the case of a primary database failure or unavailability, how to quickly switch to a standby database and ensure service continuity has become a major challenge for operators. Especially when establishing cross-regional disaster recovery centers, ensuring business continuity is particularly important.

The distance between the China Mobile centers in Hohhot and Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone exceeds 300 kilometers. To meet disaster recovery needs, regular disaster recovery testing and verification are indispensable. The testing process involves simulating a primary database failure and verifying whether the standby database switchover and data synchronization processes operate correctly. However, traditional synchronization methods cannot independently synchronize the relationship between two MySQL clusters, posing a significant obstacle to building a disaster recovery system.

To address these challenges, Information2 provides a MySQL-based cross-cluster semantic-level replication solution. This solution utilizes the GTID (Global Transaction Identifier) mechanism to ensure data consistency and integrity between different MySQL clusters. By leveraging GTID, data resumption can be achieved when the production MySQL undergoes a switchover, significantly enhancing synchronization stability.

During implementation, China Mobile established two independent MySQL clusters in Hohhot and Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone. These two clusters synchronize and replicate data using Information2’s cross-cluster semantic-level replication technology. During disaster recovery testing, a primary database failure scenario was simulated, and the standby database switchover and data synchronization processes were successfully verified. Test results indicate that the solution can quickly take over business operations and continue providing services, effectively reducing downtime.

High Availability: Ensures system takeover by another cluster during failures, enhancing system stability.

Data Protection: Achieves comprehensive data protection and reliability, ensuring business continuity.

Performance Improvement: Load balancing enhances system performance and scalability, providing a quality user experience.

Disaster Recovery Verification: Regular testing verifies the reliability of the disaster recovery plan, improving rapid recovery capabilities.

Customer Evaluation

The cross-cluster semantic-level replication solution provided by Information2 not only solves our long-standing disaster recovery challenges but also significantly improves the stability and performance of the billing system. With Information2’s technical support, we have successfully built an efficient and reliable disaster recovery system, providing a solid guarantee for the sustainable development of our business.