ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Abuissa, Head of Sales Engineering East
Region, Cisco Middle East.
This is a unified datacentre architecture
that combines compute, storage, network
and management into a platform
designed to automate IT as a service
across physical and virtual environments,
resulting in increased budget efficiency,
more agile business responsiveness, and
simplified IT operations. Cisco is focused
on innovations that break down silos
across the components of the datacentre,
and add programmability to all layers of
the datacentre to support increasingly
virtualised and distributed applications.
Redesign the datacentre
The ever-increasing flow of traffic, from
the cloud in particular, is putting pressure
on conventional network architectures,
particularly in terms of ensuring business
continuity. These developments affecting
the datacentre environment place a new
series of demands on the network at the
level of cabling infrastructure, and are
changing datacentre design from the
ground level up.
“It has become more imperative
than ever for datacentre infrastructure
managers to carefully consider their
network architecture. In today’s
competitive business environment,
there is a need to implement the most
cost-effective, future-proof connectivity
infrastructure quickly and efficiently,”
explains Tarek Helmy, Regional Director
Gulf and Middle East, South and East
Africa of Nexans Cabling Solutions.
Server virtualisation is one of the trends
in increasing the efficiency of datacentres;
however, it can lead to stresses in the
supporting connectivity infrastructure.
Datacentres have a different approach
in design and implementation when
compared to a LAN infrastructure in
an office. In datacentres, the main
requirements are high-speed links with
a condensed number or terminations for
both fibre and copper. The high-speed
links require either fibre links, which are
usually pre-terminated fibre cables to
support switch-to-switch connectivity,
or high-end copper technology such as
Cat6A, Cat7A or Cat8 to support server-to-
switch connectivity.
Arrival of the wholesale datacentre
Khazna Data Centers is the only
dedicated commercial wholesale
datacentre provider in the UAE and one
of the largest infrastructure operators in
the MENA region. It is majority owned
by Mubadala Investment Company and
operates two datacentre parks: one at
Masdar City in Abu Dhabi and the other
in Meydan in Dubai.
It has a combined IT load of 24
megawatt in just over five years of
operations. Khazna Data Centers
provides clients with dedicated
datacentres and office space with
different IT capacities based on their
specific needs.
Khazna Data Centers has the ability
to provide customers with different data
loads, ranging from 500-kilowatt IT
capacity per data hall to 2.5 megawatt
per datacentre. This gives customers
the flexibility to operate highly
scalable solutions that cater to their
requirements. Khazna Data Centers
handles the power charges to clients on
an actual use basis using a transparent
pass-through mechanism. It does
not provide any managed services,
connectivity or applications within
the customer space, giving them the
freedom to manage their dedicated IT
space the way they prefer.
“With our offering in the UAE
market, cloud and security partners
can enjoy a faster deployment and
by extension, a quicker go-to-market
strategy by hosting their services with
Khazna Data Center facilities. We also
encourage leasing facilities through our
retail tenants for clients that prefer a
retail business model,” explains Hasan
Al Naqbi, Chief Executive Officer,
Khazna Data Centers Al Naqbi.
“Our focus is to provide robust
facilities that are not only resilient
and highly available but also scalable
to help organisations and cloud
networks focus on their own business
operations. This gives them the option
of focusing on their core competencies,
leaving the development of datacentre
infrastructure up to us.”
“We understand the sensitivity
of data to clients when it comes to
security and control. We have therefore
created a solution that allows clients
to manage and control their dedicated
datacentre space from a security and
IT management standpoint. They have
the option of managing the physical
monitoring of their datacentre and
access to control the facilities, leaving
the management of the datacentre
infrastructure to us,” adds Al Naqbi.
“Unlike retail datacentre providers,
we offer clients their own datacentre
and office spaces that are fully
segregated from other tenants. This
area is under their full management
and control.”
Hasan Al Naqbi, Chief Executive Officer, Khazna Data Centers Al Naqbi.
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