Page 51 - SAMENA Trends - June-August 2021

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

carrier grade data centres.” meet future demands including landing of The pandemic has
a new generation of submarines as well
The addition of the space and high power as becoming a disaster recovery hub for emphasised the crucial
capacity in Fujairah, Kalba and Dubai will Etisalat’s customers. role of interconnection
triple the supply of space and power with
possibility of scalability, and all of that SmartHub is strategically a right fit and wholesale as relevant
setup with diversified power grid supply for industry verticals such as financial infrastructure in dealing
complemented with backup systems (N+N services and gaming. SmartHub’s secure with capacity and demand.
power redundancy). digital capabilities support interconnected
clouds and low latency environments The COVID crisis has also
SmartHub Kalba is Etisalat’s third wholesale directly connected to global networks has exposed new opportunities
data centre, following the opening of the potential to offer diversified and low
facilities in Fujairah and Dubai. The new latency route connectivity to more than 2 as well as accelerated the
data centre aims to offer geo-redundant billion people in less than 30 milliseconds. mega trend-driven change
ecosystem for global players to expand
their regional presence. Additionally, the Digital wholesaler is the way forward of the telecoms industry.
new facility is also selected to be the A digital wholesaler will be able to provide
landing for Africa-1, a new subsea telecom services on demand using easy to use gaming and financial services sectors. The
system connecting Africa, the Middle East customer portals and applications. This digital wholesaler will be able to create a
and Europe. This gives SmartHub Kalba a will be enabled by virtualisation of the platform and eco-system that can offer
pivotal role in catering towards facilitating network to serve new types of customers many services with a single access (e.g.
faster connectivity to various global in addition to telcos such as CPaaS Cloud connect, IoT platform, SMS, etc.).
partners. The Fujairah SmartHub will platform providers, content providers,
The Future of Telecom Wholesale
The pandemic has emphasised the crucial
role of interconnection and wholesale
as relevant infrastructure in dealing with
capacity and demand. The COVID crisis
has also exposed new opportunities
as well as accelerated the mega trend-
driven change of the telecoms industry.
With shifts in technology and customer
behaviour, the future will comprise
immense opportunities for players willing
to reinvent their network and service
capabilities to ultimately drive growth.

51 JUN-AUG 2021