Dubai Internet City (DIC) has announced the next step in its ambitions to become a regional hub for e-commerce - the signing of a major ten-year initiative with IBM, the IT giant. As part of this initiative, IBM and DIC will build two Internet Data Centers (IDCs) serving organisations throughout the Middle East and offering "a full set of solutions, services and technologies to enable comprehensive e-business hosting capabilities."
The aim of DIC is to create an infrastructure and environment that will enable new economy businesses to operate locally, regionally and globally from Dubai with significant competitive advantages. The two new centres will be located within the DIC and their services will include managing and operating customer servers, hosting websites and building new network-based customer applications. In addition they will provide a full range of network services, such as managed bandwidth, Internet connectivity and IP (Internet Protocol) transit under service level agreements. A technical and marketing team will be set up jointly by DIC and IBM to develop, manage and market the new centres, which are expected to generate more than US$75m in revenues.
Typical customers for the range of services offered by DIC and IBM within the new centres will be Application Service Providers (ASPs), dot.com companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and multinationals, as well as traditional "bricks and mortar" companies incorporating web-based operations.
IBM will provide the blueprint for building the two IDC's, based on the company's state-of-the-art hosting farm architecture. Ahmad Bin Byat, Chief Executive Officer of DIC, commented: 'We will also be able to connect from DIC to IBM hosting/trading centers around the world, giving us access to the very latest tools and technological solutions.'
Mohammad Al Gergarwi, Director General of Dubai Technology, Electronic Commerce and Media Free Zone Authority and Chairman of DIC, said of the proposed collaboration with IBM: 'Our aim is simple - to offer the best possible e-business facilities to all organisations, both public and private sector, operating in this region. Our partnership with IBM is designed to deliver just that, namely a secure, reliable and scalable hosting facility that is world class. Speed to market is vital in this space as is access to the best technology and skills. The partnership with IBM will deliver all of these requirements.' A key element of the partnership will involve skills and transfer knowledge to local UAE nationals.
Mike Lawrie, General Manager at IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa, added: 'With the enormous changes in the uses of computer and communications technology in the last few years the growing demand for IT services is just staggering. Many companies, regardless of size, are looking for experienced IT partners that can help develop and host their new e-business infrastructure and applications in a secure and scalable environment, backed by top-notch services support. With the launch of this e-business Hosting Service we believe that Dubai Internet City has set a very high benchmark for these advanced e-business services in this region.'
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