DR Orchestration for a
Leading UAE Retail Bank
A leading retail banking company in Abu Dhabi needed to automate its disaster recovery operations, meet Central Bank of UAE regulatory requirements, and replace manual DR drills that were too error-prone and too slow to keep pace with a growing infrastructure. Softenger implemented Kyndryl Cloud Resiliency Orchestration — starting with the Finacle core banking system and expanding from there.
Kyndryl CRO Implementation —
UAE Retail Banking
A UAE retail bank’s DR program — too manual to be compliant
Disaster recovery in retail banking isn’t optional and it isn’t primarily about technology — it’s about regulatory compliance. The Central Bank of UAE sets Recovery Time Objectives that licensed institutions must demonstrate they can meet through regular, documented DR drills. When those drills are manual, they introduce human error, inconsistent execution, and extended timelines that repeatedly fall short of the regulatory standard.
The Abu Dhabi bank was managing this situation with DR procedures that had been designed for a simpler infrastructure and hadn’t kept pace with the institution’s growth. Every drill exposed the same vulnerabilities: coordination failures between teams, inconsistent step sequencing, and drill times that demonstrated the bank couldn’t meet its own recovery objectives — let alone the Central Bank’s requirements.
UAE banking regulations require institutions to demonstrate the ability to recover critical systems within defined timeframes. Failure to evidence compliance through successful DR drills carries direct regulatory consequences. The bank’s manual process was an active compliance risk, not merely an operational inconvenience.
DR Processes Were Manual, Error-Prone, and Too Slow
Recovery workflows required manual coordination between multiple teams in a defined sequence. Human error in sequencing or handoffs caused drill failures and extended recovery times — directly undermining the bank’s ability to demonstrate Central Bank UAE compliance through successful test events.
Manual DR · Human Error · Recovery Time ObjectivesRegulatory Compliance Demanded Demonstrable RTO Achievement
The Central Bank of UAE’s DR requirements aren’t satisfied by having a plan — they require demonstrated execution within defined recovery time targets. Inconsistent manual drill results couldn’t provide the auditable evidence of RTO compliance that regulatory standards require.
Central Bank UAE · RTO Compliance · Regulatory AuditDR Drill Complexity Was Growing Faster Than the Team’s Capacity
As the bank expanded its application portfolio, each new system added more coordination steps, more handoffs, and more potential failure points to an already complex manual drill process. The existing approach was unsustainable — each quarter’s drill was harder than the last.
Scalability · Application Portfolio Growth · Drill ComplexityFour phases — from architecture to a successful DR drill
The implementation followed a deliberate sequencing. Architecture design before core banking team engagement. Documentation before configuration. Configuration before testing. Each phase produced a concrete output that the next phase depended on — ensuring no step was built on an unvalidated assumption.
Initial Consultation and Architecture Design
Softenger worked directly with the bank’s DR and architecture teams to explain the Kyndryl CRO tool’s architecture and how it would integrate with the existing infrastructure. Detailed architectural designs were developed and shared with all stakeholders before any deployment activity began — ensuring every team understood both the deployment plan and its implications for their systems.
Stakeholder-approved architectural design. CRO integration plan validated against existing infrastructure. All DR and architecture team questions resolved before Phase 02 began.
Engagement with Core Banking Application Team
Softenger collaborated with the core banking application team — the people who operate the Finacle system daily — to document the bank’s current DR processes in full detail. These documented processes were incorporated into a customized run book that became the authoritative reference for the CRO implementation and all subsequent DR drill execution.
The run book wasn’t a generic template. It was built specifically from the bank’s actual processes, with Finacle-specific recovery sequences, dependency mappings, and team handoff procedures documented with the precision the CRO tool required.
Comprehensive Finacle DR process documentation. Customized run book incorporating the bank’s actual recovery sequences, team dependencies, and system relationships. Foundation for CRO workflow configuration in Phase 03.
CRO Implementation and Workflow Configuration
Softenger implemented the Kyndryl CRO tool and configured it against the bank’s specific DR requirements, as captured in the Phase 02 run book. Workflows were developed within CRO to reflect the Finacle recovery sequences — automating the coordination, sequencing, and validation steps that had previously required manual team effort during each drill.
Integration with the bank’s DR processes was tested iteratively — validating each workflow against the expected behavior before the full DR drill was scheduled. This testing phase identified and resolved any discrepancies between the documented processes and the CRO workflow execution before they could cause a drill failure.
Kyndryl CRO fully configured and integrated with the bank’s DR infrastructure. All Finacle recovery workflows implemented, tested, and validated. System ready for live DR drill.
DR Drill Execution and Expansion to Other Applications
A successful DR drill was conducted using the CRO tool, focusing on the Finacle core banking system. The drill demonstrated a 50% reduction in DR drill times compared to the previous manual process — and eliminated the coordination errors that had previously caused drill failures and extended recovery timelines.
The pilot result gave the bank’s leadership confidence in the CRO tool’s capability across different applications. The bank made the decision to extend CRO usage to other critical applications — expanding the automation program beyond the Finacle pilot and establishing DR orchestration as the standard approach across the institution’s portfolio.
Successful DR drill — 50% reduction in drill times, zero errors. Central Bank UAE RTO compliance demonstrated. Bank decision made to expand CRO to additional critical applications beyond Finacle.
Five outcomes — one of which changed the program’s scope
The pilot produced the expected efficiency gains. The outcome that changed the engagement was the bank’s decision to expand — a vote of confidence in CRO that turned a Finacle pilot into a multi-application DR orchestration program.
50% Reduction in DR Drill Times
DR drill times cut by half compared to previous manual processes — demonstrating the efficiency of automated orchestration on the Finacle core banking system and validating CRO as the right tool for the institution’s DR requirements.
Enhanced DR Capabilities
Streamlined and automated recovery processes replaced the manual, error-prone procedures that had previously made the bank vulnerable to drill failures and RTO non-compliance.
Human Error Virtually Eliminated
Automation removed manual coordination from the recovery workflow sequence — eliminating the human errors that had previously caused drill failures, extended recovery times, and compliance gaps.
Scalable Solution — Expanded Beyond Finacle
The success of the Finacle pilot gave the bank’s leadership confidence to extend CRO usage to other critical applications — establishing DR orchestration automation as the institution’s standard approach rather than a one-system experiment. This expansion outcome was the strongest possible validation of the pilot’s success.
Robust Documentation and Run Book
Comprehensive run book documentation developed during Phase 02 gave the bank’s teams the reference material to operate the CRO tool confidently — and provided the auditable documentation that regulatory DR compliance review requires. The run book outlasts the engagement and serves the bank’s DR program independently.
Key Takeaway
The partnership between the UAE retail banking company, GBM, and Softenger led to a successful implementation of the Kyndryl Cloud Resiliency Orchestration tool — transforming the bank’s disaster recovery processes from a compliance liability into a demonstrable competitive strength. Through meticulous planning, detailed documentation, and expert execution across four structured phases, the bank now operates with improved DR efficiency, reduced error risk, and a proven capability to meet Central Bank UAE regulatory requirements.
Every engagement follows
the AOTS framework
The four implementation phases of this engagement map precisely to Softenger’s AOTS model. The Advise phase produced the architectural design and stakeholder alignment that made every subsequent phase reliable. The Optimize phase produced the run book — the documentation that the Transform phase depended on for accurate CRO workflow configuration. The Transform phase executed the implementation and validated it through the live DR drill. The Support phase maintains the program and governs its expansion to other applications.
The 50% drill time reduction was not a coincidence. It was the direct result of following the AOTS sequence without shortcuts — documentation before configuration, testing before live execution, validation before expansion.
Advise
Architecture design and stakeholder consultation. CRO integration plan validated. DR team and architecture team aligned on the deployment approach before any implementation activity began.
Architectural designs shared and approved. Integration plan validated. All stakeholder questions resolved before Phase 02.
Optimize
Core banking application team engagement. Current DR processes documented in full. Customized Finacle run book built from actual operational processes — not templated assumptions.
Comprehensive DR process documentation complete. Finacle-specific run book published. CRO workflow configuration foundation established.
Transform
Kyndryl CRO implemented and configured. Workflows developed, tested, and validated. Live DR drill on Finacle — 50% drill time reduction delivered and documented. Bank decision to expand to other applications.
CRO fully operational on Finacle. 50% drill time reduction achieved. Zero errors. Expansion to other critical applications approved.
Support
CRO program maintained and extended. DR drills conducted on schedule. Run book maintained current as the bank’s infrastructure evolves. Expansion to additional critical applications governed through the same four-phase approach.
DR orchestration program sustained. Regulatory compliance maintained. CRO expansion to additional applications in progress.
The AOTS model is applied to every Softenger engagement
From UAE banking DR orchestration to Indian telecom network reconfigurations, security operations centers, and IT automation programs — the same four-phase discipline structures every engagement Softenger delivers.
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Tell us how your organization
currently manages disaster recovery.
Whether it’s a banking institution navigating Central Bank UAE requirements, a regulated enterprise in any sector facing DR audit exposure, or an organization whose manual DR processes have outgrown the team’s capacity to run them — Softenger has implemented enterprise DR orchestration in high-compliance environments. A conversation with one of our DR specialists starts with your current program state, not a product recommendation.
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