Industry Thought Leadership

The Middle East region has always been an important strategic gateway for network traffic between Europe, Asia and Africa. Over the last ten years, the region’s digital infrastructure has evolved enormously, leading to the arrival of new data centres, internet exchanges and network providers.

At the same time, countries such as the UAE and Oman have emerged as major business hubs that attract a large number of multinationals. As a result, carriers are increasingly looking for fast and secure network access into the Middle East region from key markets across Europe and Asia.

There has been significant interest from global carriers in leveraging the network automation and connectivity capabilities of the Console Connect Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform to connect into the Middle East. The platform offers carriers a much simpler and quicker way to make layer 2 connections on-demand - and it lets them do that using a network they trust.

The automated Console Connect fabric is underpinned by PCCW Global’s MPLS network, which is a Tier 1 IP network that offers extensive global reach. This means carrier customers provisioning bandwidth on the Console Connect platform can experience improved network performance, such as lower latency and higher availability of guaranteed throughput.

Because PCCW Global’s network offers multiple routes between the Middle East and Europe, Asia and Africa, carriers using the platform can also experience improved network resiliency and redundancy when they connect into the region.

Customers can find highly competitive pricing for bandwidth into the Middle East on the Console Connect portal, which is fully automated and available as a pay-as-you-go model. Carrier customers in the region can also resell Console Connect and bundle services for their enterprise customers.

Faster connections to the cloud
The Middle East is one of the fastest growing regions when it comes to consuming cloud services. In the last year, major cloud providers, such as Microsoft Azure, AWS and Oracle, have launched data centres in the region.

The Console Connect platform is directly connected to major cloud platforms, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud, which customers can access from our growing number of data centre locations worldwide. The platform is a great fit for carrier customers looking to connect their enterprise customers quickly and easily to the cloud in the Middle East.

Console Connect is continuing to grow its ecosystem of data centre, cloud, SaaS, carrier and enterprise partners in the Middle East, and the platform is now enabled in key data centres in Dubai, Doha, Fujairah, Jeddah and Cairo. Carriers on the platform can make direct connections to these locations and more than 350 other data centre worldwide.

Carrier customers can easily interconnect to the automated fabric using one of the Console Connect NNI ports. Once the port is configured, customers can begin making instant connections between the NNI port and any other port on the Console Connect fabric – and they can do this either through the Console Connect online portal or through an open API.

Console Connect has recently collaborated with cloud networking company neutrality.one to support the connectivity requirements of its enterprise customers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Using the platform, neutrality.one customers can now connect around the world and to the cloud using secure and high-performance networking.

The collaboration is a great example of how Console Connect is helping carrier customers extend their global reach while at the same providing their end customers with new levels of flexibility, reliability and control.