Etisalat's ICT Infrastructure Management Forum highlights role of infrastructure outsourcing in improving operational efficiencies

The event which was held at the Jumeriah Beach hotel in Dubai saw a wide attendance with attendees gaining valuable insights in terms of emerging trends in infrastructure management, which would allow them to minimize complexities, optimize costs and focus on their core businesses needs by outsourcing parts of their non core ICT infrastructure Management.

Abdulla Hashim, Vice President Enterprise Solutions, Etisalat opened the forum and drew attention to the need for IT heads and CIOs need to align the IT architecture with business strategy.

Elaborating further , he said:

'Radical enablement of business using IT is challenging and this is especially true, when you consider the fast pace and increasing complexity of technology growth This is where Etisalat is playing a leading role by offering a complete end to end telecom and ICT solutions portfolio giving organizations the flexibility to outsource their non core IT needs. Thus IT departments can be transforming from being just a technical support group into a real enabler for change in their company'.

Angus MacCormick, Senior Director for Strategic Customers and Advanced Technologies, Emerging Markets, Cisco spoke about key industry trends that can be organized into three broad themes: Empowered User, Real-time Information, and the Borderless Enterprise.

Building on his three themes, he said Empowered Users lead to grass roots innovation and personalization.

2On the Real Time front, information has to be virtual, secure and integrated. And for the Borderless Enterprise, it will become immediately responsive to changing conditions and business anytime by taking advantage of information captured in the network, to have proactive, collaborative decision-making.

He then proceeded to talk about the growth of the IP network into the next new platform, supporting communications-centric applications.

David Small VP of Managed Service & Channels EMEA - JUNIPER also spoke at the conference and talked about the implications of Internet threats ,its various forms and multiple points of attack.

He the proceeded to explain the concept of Unified threat Management (UTM) as a combination of threat detection mechanisms used to mitigate complex attacks on various fronts.

Through partnering with a managed service provider delivering UTM services, a customer can now benefit from expert knowledge that can not only deploy the technology but, more importantly, ensure it is maintained in a daily or hourly basis to remain effective for the life of their service contract

Speaking on the occasion, Margaret Adam, Senior Analyst, IT Services, IDC talked about the significant growth of outsourcing in the UAE as a sign that the concept of Managed services was gaining ground among companies. Lack of inhouse IT skills, lower capital expenditure and reduced exposure to technology obsolescence were highlighted as some of the key reasons for companies to outsource.

The forum also featured a talk Geoffrey Young, Senior Manager / Solutions Architect, Etisalat's on enhancing productivity through Managed Networks.

He spoke about the various components of Managed Services from Communication Links, Customer Premise Equipment, Network Security, Network Applications and service level agreements.

He also spoke about Etisalat's efforts at extending its global reach in GCC, Asia Africa and Europe by setting up its own nodes and partnering with service providers like Verizon, BT, Orange, Singtel and others.