Etisalat launches Managed Services for the UAE market

Etisalat's Managed Services provides an end-to-end solution based on well known Industry Standards with service level guarantees that suits enterprise WAN requirements allowing companies to focus on their core business activities, while Etisalat closely monitors their ICT infrastructure.

A study by Ovum in 2006 estimated the managed-services market to reach $41.5 billion per year by 2009. The region including Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) currently leads in adoption of managed services, followed by North America.

Etisalat will offer three types of packages under its Managed WAN service beginning with the Managed Router Service. This service is an entry level solution designed to provide total support of a company's network routers that includes installation, configuration, 24x7 monitoring and on-site support maintenance and replacement.

The Managed Firewall solution prevents unauthorised access to internal networks of companies so that they can operate in a secure network environment. This 24x7 security provides greater network autonomy for critical business operations and is designed to defend against unauthorised access to company's networks through remote monitoring and management.

The Managed Secure VPN solution offered by Etisalat is the third component of the Managed WAN service. Based on the IP Security (IPSec) protocol, this is cost-effective, and scalable alternative for enterprises that need a secure, economical, and simple way to connect remote sites, employees, and business partners to networked systems and applications. It offers the security and encryption features necessary to protect enterprise data, IP voice, and video traffic as it traverses the network.

Etisalat will support its Managed WAN service by providing the highest levels of performance, reliability and stability . In order to ensure this, Etisalat will provide a comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA) to cover its services with basic monitoring, management and reporting including 24x7 on-site support.

"Our Managed Service solutions will offer the best functionality and flexibility that enterprises require by giving companies access to leading network technologies and management expertise without requiring high initial capital expenditures or ongoing investments in technology upgrades,"

said Abdulla Hashim, VP, Marketing, Enterprise Solutions,Etisalat. "In addition, one key differentiator is our ability to deliver the highest standards in quality of service due to our visibility over the network which we own and our ability to monitor the network performance."