Basil Ayass (BA), enterprise product manager, Dell Middle East
Hani Nofal (HN), integrated networking and siteservices director, Gulf Business Machines
Alaa AI-Shimy (AS), enterprise storage, servers and networking (ESSN) director, HP Middle East
Sundeep Raina (SR), regional sales manager, Chatsworth Products Inc.
Are enterprises in the Middle East moving towards the data centre?
BA:
Yes. Customers are increasingly moving towards data centres and wit h the advent of cloud computing, enterprises are looking to complement current capacity with serv ices from a public cloud provider or a hosting firm. These options minimise the capital investment requirements and enable the customer to consume data centre 'as a service'. As the IT infrastructure improves and the governance and regulatory environment mature in the region, I believe this option will feature more prominently in our customer plans in the next few years.
SR:
Enterprises in the Middle East are moving towards data centres as a business necessity. It has become part of the basic infrastructure that anenterprise requires to run its business. Energy costs are still on the lower side compared to other parts of the world, so that makes it more viable from the OPEX point of view.What also helps is the availability of experts on the subject matter who understand datacenters as a concept and therefore contribute to an enterprises plan for data centres.
HN:
On the technology front, the fast growth rate of companies here in the Middle East means t hat they are sometimes unable to make timely investments in the necessary IT infrastructure to scale rapidly. In addit ion, due to the growing amount of data being collected, stored, and processed, they are often located in faciliti esthat, while perhaps suitable five years ago, cannot be upgraded today.The result is that those enterprises face this reality but still have to deal with the demand to stretch all resources and enhance the asset utilisation while improving the service level, agility and security comp liance.
AS:
We are in an emerging market and we are not at the same stage as mature markets, but we're taking the steps to get th ere and evolving technologies and development happening in the industry are giving enterprises the opportunities to leverage all these new technologies and move to the data centre at a more competitive pricing. You get more benefits to the business and at the same t ime you save more costs. The market sees that andthe enterprise customers in the Midd le East are moving in this direction. We've done a number of projects for a number of enterprise players (in the region). I don't see any concerns from customers in this part of the world about moving into the data centre.The on ly concern sometimes is about the project and when can they do it, but I think from a technology and business value point of view, I don't see any concerns. On the contrary, lots of people are excited about making this step.
What role does the network play in the data centre?
SR:
It is pretty much the core of a data centre. With voice, video and data convergence, practica lly everything is being transmitted over networks from one corner of the world to another. If you look at active network components, our observation is that enterprises bu il d redundant networks to make sure that theyare connected 24/7.There are some other things that must be looked after, like optimal methods of heat management in data centres. Cable management has also become absolute ly important and is one of the keys in making sure that the network is always available. Optima l heat management not only plays a great role in making sure equipment doesn't malfunction due to excessive heat, it also makes sure that enterprises consume less power to run the data centre.
AS:
That is a very good and sensitive questi on. I see a development in this area and enhancements in operators, which are increasing and investing in the infrastructure, in some countries like the UAE with Etisalat and du there is a reliable player to rely on. In some other countries, without naming them, I don't think they are ready yet. But the operators see the value of it and are exploring it. [Some) of them are exploring the cloud and data centre services but they are doing so carefully. But are the operators ready to provide the services today? In some countr ies, yes I think so, but in some, no. BA: The network infrastructure to deliver applications or information is critical, regardless of location or end point device. Dell sees the data centre as the focal point andits network must be transformed into a streamlined, efficient and policy driven network that is responsive to changing applications and end-user demands. HN: Redundancy is a key measure of any data centre that translates into reliability. Business cont inuit y is based on the availability of the network which is the fundamental foundation that interconnects all the elements of the data centre and the enterprise infrastructure.The network must be capable of dynamically delivering the required services and automatically managing for different content types.