EMC attracts Middle East's telecoms majors for second summit

Leading telecom providers from the GCC, Levant, Iraq and North Africa attended the 2nd EMC Telecoms Summit at the Burj Al Arab hotel last month in Dubai to discover firsthand the latest solutions in information protection and management technology developed principally for the telecommunications industry.

According to senior executives in EMC's Middle East operations, the rapid growth in the telecoms sector has stimulated IT purchasing as companies contend with increasing data requirements and augment their existing services with new offerings.

"Last year's Telecoms Summit filled a void in the industry, and demonstrated that there is a real need for increased communication between the IT industry and the region's telecommunications industry. We expected and hosted a much higher number of delegates for the second EMC Telecoms Summit - 30 attendees representing 17 service providers - and this audience reflects the importance of IT to their industry as a whole," said Rainer Erlat, senior vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, EMC.

"Growth in this sector has been phenomenal over the last few years, and the predictions are that the industry will continue to develop at the same speed," added Amin. "GSM service numbers are soaring, wired networks are being upgraded to accommodate customer broadband requirements, and there is the possibility of wireless services in the not-too-distant future. Providers planning to introduce next-generation communication services to customers have to start exploring the opportunities today," added Mohammed Amin, general manager, EMC Middle East.

During the two-day event, senior EMC management from both the Middle East and the pan-EMEA region focused on helping the telecommunications sector understand how to deploy additional services while adapting to new industry regulations. Central to the summit were presentations in managing heterogeneous storage and data environments through a next-generation always-on infrastructure.

Speakers explained how EMC Legato, EMC Documentum and EMC Smarts applications for data storage management and analysis can improve business performance while cutting operational costs.

"Liberalisation is on the horizon and service providers recognise that they will soon have to adjust to market dynamics. The region's companies must deliver first-class service and round-the-clock communications in order to compete," explained Amin. "We have several exciting additions to the agenda this year, including telecoms experts from our latest software acquisition EMC Smarts. With SMARTS an entire infrastructure can be transformed into an intelligent, self-healing network."

With EMC supplying enterprise storage solutions to the majority of telecoms providers in the region already, the Telecoms Summit featured case studies from around the Middle East as well as commentary on trends and issues provided by EMC's telecoms-specific experts and senior EMEA decision-makers.