Orient Express Bank is one of Russia’s largest and fastest-growing financial institutions and has a strong presence in the Far East and Siberia, and of late has gained a reputation in retail banking services in Central and Western Russia.

To cement its position in the market, the bank has been modernizing its information processing systems to be the best available. But this was not enough. It also needed to house these systems in a secure and reliable place. It initially toyed with the idea of constructing and operating its own facility to store the systems, but decided against it and chose to locate at DataSpace’s Moscow data center.

Sergey Vlasov, CEO of Orient Express Bank, observed that “highly reliable data centers are very complex and best left to those who professionally build and manage them.”

DataSpace was chosen for several reasons. Financial institutions and today’s enterprises rely on uninterrupted and secured data processing operations; hence the Orient Express Bank did require a Tier 3 facility. And, DataSpace is the first Tier 3 (News - Alert)-certified facility in Russia to provide colocation services. Being Tier 3 certified meant that the data center would never be shut down for maintenance and that downtime would be minimal.

The colocation facility is carrier neutral and offers customers flexibility in IT services through multiple partnerships. The 6,200 sq. m data center is within 15 minutes from the Kremlin and is in a stand-alone building.

“Orient Express Bank has shown the model of outsourcing these complex data center functions is the most cost effective and secure solution, when risk management and its associated investment are taken into account,” noted David Hamner, CEO at DataSpace.

DataSpace also develops and operates world-class colocation data centers in Moscow that are certified Tier 3 by the Uptime Institute – the global data center authority. Many major Russian and multinational financial institutions operating in Russia have apparently chosen DataSpace mission critical facilities as their Moscow data center operator.

“We continue to see major Russian banks adopting the highest standards of security and reliability on their decisions about facilities that support their information processing, added Hamner.

The contract is considered a significant one and is being viewed as a major commitment by both parties.