Almoayed Group

AlBaraka Islamic Bank is a leading Islamic Bank operating in Bahrain, covering Saudi Arabia, UAE, other GCC countries and Pakistan. The bank has a large base of customers who aspire to conduct their investments and financial transactions on the lines of Islamic Sharia.AlBaraka is a joint stock company registered in Bahrain as an exempt company. The Bank was incorporated and licensed to operate from Bahrain as an offshore bank on the 16th Ramadan 1404H; corresponding to 21st February 1984.The Bank operations are conducted under the vigilance of the Bahrain Monetary Agency. The paid up capital of the bank is US dollars 50 million, divided into 0.5 million shares of US dollars each. Around the world, there are 23 banks and financial institutions working under the name of AlBaraka.

ALMOAYED Group was given the opportunity to implement new Cisco switch technology. Cisco provides the most comprehensive set of campus switching solutions in the industry, meeting the requirements from small networks to large campus deployments. The Cisco Catalyst Series of switches consists of a range of Ethernet-based platforms providing increasing levels of functionality, spanning basic intelligent switching to high-capacity, multilayer switching solutions with advanced levels of intelligent services. These switches provide the performance, functionality, scalability, and flexibility suitable for converged network access or backbone applications for enterprise and small/medium business environments.

Overview of the solution provided by ALMOAYED GROUP
The physical design of the AL BARAKA ISLAMIC BANK backbone consists of multimode fiber optics cable and Cisco 4506 Core Switch. Cisco Catalyst 3560 is the access layer switch connected to the Core Switch on the Fiber Backbone. It provided Gigabit connectivity within the corporate and banking application servers. A next-generation Cisco Catalyst 4500 platform for intelligent switching, Catalyst 4506 (6-slot). A primary component of Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data), the Catalyst 4500 Series extends control to enterprise wiring closets, branch offices, and Layer 3 distribution points. The Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series is a line of fixed-configuration, enterprise-class switches that include IEEE 802.3af and Cisco prestandard Power over Ethernet (PoE) functionality in Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet configurations. The Cisco Catalyst 3560 is an ideal access layer switch for small enterprise LAN access or branch-office environments, combining both 10/100/1000 and PoE configurations for maximum productivity and investment protection while enabling the deployment of new applications such as IP telephony, wireless access, video surveillance, building management systems, and remote video kiosks. It offers industry-leading availability, integrated security, optimized delivery, and manageability.

We also connected one disaster recovery site and one remote location site on to the new Core Switch; this was taken care by making appropriate configuration in the Core Switch. Benefit is a service which is used for carrying out financial transactions between different banks. After implementing new IP Schema our team faced some problems accessing the Benefit services from the new set up. In order to resolve this issue we recommended adding one new network at the Benefit end and configuring the same network in the core Switch. This was successfully implemented. Also we implemented Vlans to isolate and limit the traffic between different floors. This was done by configuring Vlans in the Core Switch. This ensures the successful completion of installation and configuration of Cisco 4506 and Cisco 3560 Edge switches.