Updated: 24 September 2026
Cisco ISE and Cisco DNA Center, deployed identically across the bank's Data Centre, DR, and Far DR sites on standardised Dell and VMware infrastructure, with Proactive.
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AT A GLANCE Industry: Urban co-operative banking. Scheduled bank, RBI-regulated. Footprint: 72+ branches across Maharashtra. Three critical sites: DC, DR, Far DR. Stack deployed: Dell PowerEdge servers (×3), VMware vSphere, Cisco ISE, Cisco DNA Center. Outcome: ISE access control and DNAC assurance running identically at all three sites, with capacity sized for five years of growth. |
The Karad Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd. (Karad UCB) is a scheduled urban co-operative bank headquartered in Karad, Maharashtra. Founded in 1917, the bank operates 72+ branches across Maharashtra, with presence in Pune, Mumbai, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Solapur, Ratnagiri, Raigad, and Navi Mumbai.
Karad UCB began branch computerisation in 1989 and continues to upgrade its IT estate to meet the RBI's cyber-security and operational-resilience requirements for urban co-operative banks.
Underneath the surface symptoms sat a single constraint: the bank had decided to deploy Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco DNA Center (DNAC), and the existing server estate at each site could not host these workloads. With RBI compliance deadlines pending, a site-by-site rollout would have stretched the timeline and left the bank with three slightly different configurations to defend at audit.
Three-site consistency raised the stakes. Any configuration drift between DC, DR, and Far DR would surface as a compliance or visibility gap the moment a failover happened. Capacity planning had to look forward as well as at the workloads at launch. A second hardware refresh within 18 months would erode the business case for the platform.
The bank also wanted a single partner accountable for the full stack (hardware, virtualisation, security software, and network management) past go-live, not only at handover.
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COMPLIANCE ANGLE RBI Cyber Security Framework for Urban Co-operative Banks. Urban co-operative banks operate under the RBI's directions on cyber-security controls, with audit obligations across access control, monitoring, and incident detection. The Karad UCB platform is configured against this framework, with an identical baseline at DC, DR, and Far DR. Posture stays consistent through failover, and the bank has one configuration to document, not three. |
Proactive designed the deployment as a single programme across all three sites, with identical hardware, virtualisation, and software configuration at each.
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Three Dell PowerEdge servers, one at each site (DC, DR, Far DR), sized to host Cisco ISE, Cisco DNAC, and additional VMs for future workloads. |
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VMware vSphere virtualisation on all three servers, so workloads can be consolidated, scaled, or moved between sites without hardware changes. |
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Cisco ISE for network access control and Cisco DNA Center for network assurance, configured identically at DC, DR, and Far DR. |
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Capacity was sized for a five-year horizon, covering the ISE and DNAC workloads at launch and the bank's projected application growth. Proactive ran the rollout as a single programme covering rack and stack, virtualisation, software install, and policy configuration at all three sites.
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“The bank now has a single configuration and policy baseline that applies at every site, with the headroom to bring on additional workloads without another infrastructure cycle. Delivering the rollout as one programme rather than three site builds kept the RBI compliance work on track.” Project leadership, The Karad Urban Co-operative Bank |
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3 Sites running an identical security and monitoring baseline (DC, DR, Far DR). |
5+ yrs Capacity headroom built into the new platform for additional workloads. |
Karad UCB now runs Cisco ISE and Cisco DNA Center identically across DC, DR, and Far DR. Endpoints are authenticated, profiled, and policy-controlled by ISE before they reach the network. Devices, links, and anomalies are monitored centrally through DNA Center. The configuration aligns with the RBI Cyber Security Framework for Urban Co-operative Banks.
Because the three sites share an identical baseline, a failover does not create a compliance or monitoring gap. Audit conversations are simpler too: there is one configuration to document, not three.
Virtualisation on the new servers leaves room for additional VMs and applications, so the next five years of growth do not require another hardware refresh.
Delivering the rollout as a single programme also shortened the bank's path to RBI compliance and gave it one partner accountable for the full stack.
Projects the bank and Proactive have discussed for the next phases:
(Exploratory) SD-WAN for branch connectivity, to extend the new baseline beyond the three core sites.
(Exploratory) Application and user-experience monitoring layered on Cisco DNA Center.
(Committed) Ongoing managed-services support for the deployed Cisco ISE and DNA Center stack.
Proactive Data Systems is an enterprise IT infrastructure and services company. For more than three decades, Proactive has designed, deployed, and operated the technology foundations behind some of India's most demanding enterprise environments. A Cisco Preferred Partner under the Cisco 360 Partner Program and a Cisco Advanced Customer Experience Specialised Partner, the company serves more than 1,500 customers across banking and financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, public sector, IT and ITES, retail, education, and global capability centres.
Headquartered in Delhi NCR, with offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Indore, and Singapore.
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READY TO MODERNISE YOUR NETWORK? Talk to Proactive about your BFSI network, security, or compliance modernisation: proactive.co.in/contact-us Read more customer stories: proactive.co.in/customer-success |
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