datamena, the fastest growing carrier neutral data centre and connectivity platform based in the UAE and serving the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), has picked up multiple award wins in recognition of its Global Interconnect Ecosystem project. datamena was awarded ‘Best Internet Exchange Innovation’ at the 15th edition of the prestigious Global Carrier Awards 2019, which took place in London, United Kingdom. Building on this success, datamena received the ‘Best Service Initiative of the Year’ gong at the CommsMEA Awards 2019, held at Rhodes W1, Grosvenor House in Dubai.
The award wins recognise datamena’s commitment to empowering international digital transformation through its Global Interconnect Ecosystem, which was launched in June of 2019. The award also marks significant progress and industry recognition for datamena’s drive to evolve from a regional hub into a global player.
Through its vision for accelerating digital transformation for international business, enabling seamless delivery of digital content, and supporting the growth of global Cloud deployments, datamena launched the Global Interconnect Ecosystem in 2019 with hubs in Mumbai, India and Marseille, France. These hubs were launched in partnership with DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operator, and are connected to the UAE-IX, a leading carrier and data-neutral Internet Exchange based in Dubai.
‘Connecting the world’
Hany Aly, Executive Vice President - Enterprise Business, du, said: “These awards occasions are both landmark events that celebrate the industry’s pinnacle achievements, which makes these award wins particularly jubilant for datamena and our vision for taking digital transformation to the world.
“UAE-IX continues to expand its presence as a reputable industry force, and this industry distinction catapults our mission further as we embark on providing digital transformation pathways for international businesses and growing our partner ecosystem. This is just the start; we look forward to expanding our mission-critical role in enabling Cloud and Content to grow without borders and expanding the Global Interconnect Ecosystem to hyper-connected hubs around the world,” added Aly.
‘East to west, & west to east’
As the market needs growth for seamless access to global peering, the Global Interconnect Ecosystem will provide direct access to Cloud and Content hubs through a single platform and user experience. This enables organizations’ from around the world to simplify global interconnectedness, capture new business opportunities, and deliver new experiences for end users through a rich ecosystem of Carriers, Cloud and Content Providers, and enterprises throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
datamena has deployed DE-CIX’s Appollon Advance platform to enable hyper-scalability and Cloud exchange features alongside its global peering services. datamena will connect its UAE-IX to DE-CIX’s Mumbai IX and DE-CIX Marseille to enable remote peering between three major IXs in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The onset of this enables Global Interconnect partners at each IX to seamlessly peer with new partners in each region, bringing the content and Cloud closer to end users. These hubs are part of a global strategy that will see a growing number of IXs interconnected on a single platform.
Playing a formative role in enabling this, the UAE-IX platform – the world’s largest and most advanced Ethernet interconnection platform – is hugely beneficial to datamena partners as it provides further opportunities for global growth via a unified platform user experience that simplifies global interconnectivity.