OREANDA-NEWS. On August 12, 2008 Vision Solutions, the leading high availability and disaster recovery solutions provider in IBM Power Systems announced its customer Alfa-Bank in Moscow, Russia was recently honored as a 2008 Innovation Award recipient during the annual COMMON Europe Conference. The financial organization was recognized for their implementation of a seamless technology solution (MIMIX HA from Vision Solutions) to eliminate planned and unplanned IT downtime, reported the press-centre of Alfa-Bank.

“Our system maintenance is now completed transparently and the threat of unexpected outages is minimal because Vision Solutions’ MIMIX HA keeps a real-time backup version of applications and data available around the clock,” says CIO of Alfa-Bank, Sergei Mednov. “And we are extremely pleased with MIMIX HA’s automated features that minimize administration and ensure data integrity.”

As one of the biggest financial institutions in the region, Alfa-Bank has headed the list of the “best IT banks in Russia” for three consecutive years. The Vision Solutions’ client implemented MIMIX HA not only to mitigate downtime, but also to support any application environment, two- and three-tiered ERP environments, bi-directional and cascading replications. With downtime virtually eliminated, the bank’s customers now have unlimited access to their accounts and transactions.

“We are proud our customer Alfa-Bank received the 2008 COMMON Europe Innovation Award in the large enterprise category,” says Vision Solutions’ Director of Sales for the region, Alexander Trekin. “This further validates our relationship and that working together, we can achieve more. As Alfa-Bank endeavors to be the best in the business, Vision Solutions’ award-winning software ensures their commitment to customers.”

Nominees were evaluated on how well their IT solution demonstrates business innovation, supports outstanding achievement and highlights business value to the company and its end users. Separate judging committees for each category consisting of COMMON Europe members and IBM content experts ranked each nomination based on established criteria. COMMON Europe, an association of IBM computer users, is an umbrella organization of national IBM user associations representing most European countries. Award winners are considered to employ the best practices in the industry.