Page 41 - SAMENA Trends - June-July 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

China Mobile International Partners with Omantel

for Its Third PoP in the Middle East

Deepening its collaboration within the cables will be linked to the Muscat PoP to SmartHub and Datamena and globally to
Middle East, China Mobile International strengthen CMI’s connectivity and provide our infrastructure in Djibouti, Singapore
(CMI) has joined hands with Omantel to an alternative path through the Middle East. and other key hubs. This will bring Oman
establish its third Point of Presence (PoP) Sohail Qadir, Vice President, Wholesale, into a CMI network that covers China and
in the region in the Sultanate of Oman. Omantel said, “With the globalization of the across six continents.” The partnership
The new partnership leverages Oman’s telecommunications sector, we are looking with CMI underscores Oman’s economic
strategic location and the complementary at an exciting future of our partnerships potential and business-friendly climate,
strengths of CMI and Omantel to enable and expansion with CMI. Omantel became as a secure and stable Gulf state. It also
closer ties between the Middle East, the preferred choice to help CMI take its reflects Omantel’s growing reputation as
Africa, Asia and Europe. The new PoP will strategies forward in part because of a trusted global player. With modern high-
leverage Omantel's vast subsea network the Sultanate of Oman's geographical speed infrastructure and ultra-low-latency
to provide latency improvement, prevent location, policies that feel the pulse of connectivity, Omantel supports enterprise
single point failure and connect with other a digital future, and an infrastructure customers and as a state-owned company
CMI PoPs for resilient connectivity in the network that enables us to reach further. and experienced in submarine industry
Middle East to support increased global Forming the backbone of this partnership helps major telecom service providers
connectivity for multinational businesses. will be Omantel's robust infrastructure, with cable landing and terrestrial fiber
Omantel has invested in 20 subsea cable subsea network, professional facilities construction to expand their reach. As the
systems covering 120 locations around management and access to power.” “In an Sultanate's first and leading integrated
the world. It is also the first and only carrier era of digitization and global cooperation, telecommunications services provider,
within the six Gulf Cooperation Council CMI and Omantel are coming together to Omantel capitalizes on ultra-low latency
(GCC) countries to land a submarine cable provide secured and reliable connectivity networks to enable innovation and digital
in Europe. The Oman PoP connects to the for businesses working in GCC countries, transformation globally. It utilizes Oman's
Dubai, Fujairah and Djibouti PoPs through Africa, Europe and beyond,” said Andrew geographic advantage at the absolute
CMI’s SMW-5 and AAE-1 cable system, Niu, CMI Chief Partnership Officer, “As part nexus of the east, west, north, and south
and connect to other APAC cable systems of our commitment to the GCC region, CMI to enable its customers and partners to
in Singapore, such as SJC and APG going will be investing in backhaul to connect deliver their services with the best possible
to Hong Kong. In the future, more new our new Oman POP with our PoPs at end-user experience.

Cisco Gets SASE with Its Latest SD-WAN Software
Update

Cisco has embraced the secure access announced that advanced security was firewall and intrusion prevention, to URL
service edge (SASE) model across its integrated into Cisco SD-WAN devices, filtering. With its latest SD-WAN software,
latest SD-WAN software release. Last from application-aware enterprise customers can extend their security to
year Gartner analysts coined the SASE
term and positioned it as the unification of
enterprise access security initiatives and
WAN networking platforms, including SD-
WAN. With the 17.2 software release, Cisco
has blended its Cisco Umbrella Cloud
Security portfolio, which includes Cisco's
secure internet gateway, with its Viptela-
based SD-WAN offering. After cancelling
the first virtualized edition of its flagship
event a few weeks ago, Cisco Live is taking
place this week. At last year's Cisco Live,
Cisco said it would broaden the security of
its SD-WAN by combining it with Umbrella.
At the Cisco Partner Summit 2018, Cisco
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