eHosting Datafort CEO Urges Middle East IT Service Providers to Focus on Multi-Tenant Data Centre for Cost Savings and Business Efficiency

Dubai: 3 June, 2009 – The Middle East IT service providers need to accommodate customer demands by focusing on multi-tenant data centres for generating cost savings and improve business efficiency, according to Yasser Zeineldin, CEO of eHosting DataFort, the region’s leading IT management and advisory services provider and a member of TECOM Investments.

Zeineldin made his comments at the CEO Data Centre Middle East Roundtable during the first Data Centre Strategies Middle East Forum held from 2-3 June at the Injazat Auditorium in Abu Dhabi. In his address, Zeineldin focused on emerging technology trends, growth opportunities and areas that the region’s data centre industry demands for maximizing computing power.

Moderated by Abdulrahman A. Mazi, an industry veteran and Managing Director of Tech Invest Com, the roundtable drew a well represented panel of industry experts including Ibrahim Mohamed Lari, CEO of Injazat Data Systems, Scott MacKenzie, CEO of MEEZA, and Gilles Lapierre, Vice-President of du.

Zeineldin said:

Multi-tenant data centres at eHosting DataFort offer organizations a secure, scalable and reliable infrastructure that is managed by a team of highly qualified IT experts. Sheer economies of scale at multi-tenant data centres, which assemble standalone data centres, server rooms, computer rooms and disaster recovery sites, provide customers reduced costs in capital expenditure and peace of mind with their greater reliability and security of applications.

Zeineldin highlighted key drivers such as cost reduction, risk mitigation, and increased control and efficiency as primary reasons that influence an organization’s decision to relocate its IT operations to a data centre.

He added:

The highly qualified and tech-savvy new generation of CEOs demand services that facilitate more challenging industry requirements. Data centre modernization with guaranteed service level agreements (SLA) and green data centre technology can cater to the increasing levels of demand that can effectively offer up to 50 per cent energy savings.

Highlighting the role of a common framework for shared services that will consolidate and standardize an infrastructure for data centres and reduce costs by 27 per cent, Zeineldin pointed out ‘virtualization’ and ‘cloud computing’ can save an organization up to 60 per cent in both capital and operational spending.

According to a recent international market research firm Gartner report, the global market for cloud-based business software, computer services and storage will total about US$10 billion this year, which is a fraction of the US$223 billion that is projected for the more conventional business software market.

In addition to offering critical input on the functioning of data centres, the eHosting Datafort CEO elaborated on the company’s expertise in delivering advanced IT outsourcing solutions to the telecom, government, semi-government, IT services and manufacturing sectors.

A report from global consultancy McKinsey recently pointed out the vast global demand for data centre services is evident of the high growth of the Internet, where bandwidth capacity has doubled year on year since the mid 90s. Moreover, the Internet World Statistics report reveals that the UAE has the highest Internet penetration rate in the Arab world at 49.8 per cent of the population followed by Qatar at 34.8 per cent and Bahrain at 34.7 per cent. The total number of Internet users in the Arab world has reached 38 million.

Following the CEO roundtable, the floor was opened to the audience. Some of industry issues that were raised included key reasons for an organization’s delay in adopting data centre services; whether telecom operators should have a hand in providing data centre services, and the vital role of government support for data centre investments in the region.

The two-day Data Centre Strategies Middle East Forum 2009 brought together telecom majors, and managed service providers, as well as senior managers from major enterprises and government officials.

With world-class data centres, resilient and scalable infrastructure and round-the-clock managed operations, eHosting DataFort has a wide network of technology and channel partners based in the GCC and MENA regions, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Boasting ITIL and ISO9001: 2008, ISO 20000:2005 and ISO 27001:2005 certifications, eHosting DataFort successfully delivers operations through highly reliable and scalable infrastructures based on international standards and global best practices.

Notes to Editors

About eHosting DataFort

eHosting DataFort, a fully owned subsidiary of TECOM Investments is a leading provider of IT - Management and Advisory services. The organization has obtained a number of notable projects to deliver world-class outsourcing services to major enterprises across GCC, MENA, US and Europe. eHosting DataFort’s proven track record for managing an enterprise’s IT infrastructure includes some of the largest organizations e.g. Dubai Financial Market, Arcelor Mittal (World’s largest Steel manufacturer), Emirates Airlines, Tejari, Arab Bank, British Telecom, Khaleej Times, Panasonic, Dubai e-government and du.

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For more information, please contact:

Angelina Wong
Senior Account Executive
Dubai Internet City
JIWIN Public Relations
Email: Angelina.wong@jiwin.ae
Tel: + 971 4 369 2834