With the first phase of the project, Cisco is collaborating with local Cisco Gold Certified Partner GBM/UCMC to deliver an intelligent data centre networking infrastructure as part of Emirates' plans to consolidate and virtualise existing server farms.
Nigel Hopkins, Executive Vice President Service Delivery Emirates Group, said: "The Emirates Group is one of the world's fastest growing airline businesses. As our business continues to grow so the demand for data traffic will continue to soar at a rate of some 50 per cent annually. A network review was essential to meet these challenges. Our work with Cisco included technology refreshes, which will help stabilise both operational and capital expenditure."
"Critical data delivery is now guaranteed, and the infrastructure offers support for multimedia services such as Voice over IP. We will now be able to meet the transporting demand with regards to day-to-day reservations and bookings data from more than 80 of the airline's offices worldwide, and from flight booking agents in every corner of the globe."
The new deployment will help Emirates to reduce the complexity of its existing ATM-based networks, simplify the overall network infrastructure and build a resilient data centre core network. The Cisco technology will also help enable virtualisation of network resources across the core network, as well as optimise resources across server farms, and provides a framework to evolve towards multimedia service delivery.
Emirates recognised that parts of its existing infrastructure were approaching end of life and with growth in customer volumes, needed further scalability to support peak traffic across the data centre. Cisco's phased vision of an Intelligent Information Network helped Emirates to build a roadmap to evolve towards a virtualised infrastructure.
"The collaboration between Cisco and the Emirates Group to deploy Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches at the core of the airline's data centre network opens the door for a long-term strategic relationship between the two companies," commented Mark de Simone, VP Middle East and Africa for Cisco Systems. "By evolving towards a Cisco Business Ready Data Centre architecture, Emirates will benefit from the scalability and service flexibility to continue to deliver network-based services to customer-facing staff, as well as help to build a reliable foundation for business continuity."
In collaboration with GBM/UCMC, Cisco will also provide advanced services support to the airline throughout the project deployment plan. With the deal, Cisco becomes the first IT company to lease equipment to the Emirates Group through Cisco Capital, and will be able to provide technology refresh services during the contract.
Emirates will deploy Cisco Catalyst 6500 series switches with 10 Gigabit Ethernet inter-switch links in phase one of the project. Existing Cisco Catalyst switching infrastructure provides server farm connectivity as well as interfacing with Emirates' existing storage network infrastructure.
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Emirates Group consolidates and virtualises data centre network with Cisco technology
- United Arab Emirates: Sunday, September 25 - 2005 at 12:09
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Cisco Systems today announced that it is working with the Emirates Group to implement a new 10 Gigabit Ethernet data centre network at its operations headquarters in Dubai.
Mark De Simone, Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Cisco Systems.
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Posted by Anne-Birte Stensgaard, Senior News EditorSunday, September 25 - 2005 at 12:09 UAE local time (GMT+4)
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About Emirates
Since its launch in 1985, Emirates Airline has received more than 270 international awards in recognition of its efforts to provide unsurpassed levels of customer service.
The airline has experienced rapid and consistent growth, above 20 per cent a year on average and has been profitable for the last 17 years. Financially self-sustained and unprotected, Emirates carried 12.5 million passengers in the 2004-05 financial year - 2.1 million more than the year before - and declared a record US $637 million profit, an increase of 49 per cent over the previous year, on revenue of US $4.9 billion - US$1.3 billion more, or 36 per cent better than the year before.
Emirates is the world's fastest-growing intercontinental airline, one of the world's five most profitable and among the 20 largest ones. It is based in Dubai, one of the few cities in the world that pursues an open-skies policy, with more than 110 airlines in free and fair competition.
Its 77 all wide-bodied fleet includes six Boeing 747 freighters and is among the youngest in the skies, with an average age of 55 months - over 8 years less than the industry average. The airline plans to more than double its size by 2012.
Emirates presently has 96 aircraft pending delivery, worth nearly US$30 billion in list prices. This includes 45 Airbus A380s (two of them freighters), 26 Boeing 777-300ERs, 20 Airbus A340-600 HGWs, two A340-500s and three A310-300 freighters. Emirates announced the largest order in commercial aviation history at the 2003 Paris Air Show, when it added 71 new Airbus and Boeing aircraft worth US$19 billion to its order book.
The airline was the launch carrier for the new ultra long-haul A340-500, which started service on 1st December 2003 on the Sydney route. It also was the first airline to order the revolutionary A380-800 double-decker and will be the main launch carrier for the innovative A340-600 HGW. Emirates' 45 A380 orders, which it will start receiving next year, make it the largest customer of the Airbus super-jumbo.
Emirates operates services to 78 cities in 54 countries in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa, Indian subcontinent and Asia-Pacific. Since January 2004 the airline has launched services to ten new destinations, including the Seychelles, Seoul and Alexandria in the first half of 2005. Later this year it will start services to Hamburg, and in February 2006 to Beijing.
Emirates has codeshare agreements with Air India, Air Mauritius, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, South African Airways, SriLankan Airlines, and Thai Airways.
Emirates Airline includes Emirates SkyCargo and Destination & Leisure Management (D&LM), which manages Emirates Holidays, Arabian Adventures and Al Maha Desert Resort. The airline is part of the Emirates Group, which also includes associate companies Dnata, Mercator, Transguard and Galileo.
Visit Emirates online at: www.emirates.com
About Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, this year celebrates 20 years of commitment to technology innovation, industry leadership and corporate social responsibility. Information on Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.
Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Since its launch in 1985, Emirates Airline has received more than 270 international awards in recognition of its efforts to provide unsurpassed levels of customer service.
The airline has experienced rapid and consistent growth, above 20 per cent a year on average and has been profitable for the last 17 years. Financially self-sustained and unprotected, Emirates carried 12.5 million passengers in the 2004-05 financial year - 2.1 million more than the year before - and declared a record US $637 million profit, an increase of 49 per cent over the previous year, on revenue of US $4.9 billion - US$1.3 billion more, or 36 per cent better than the year before.
Emirates is the world's fastest-growing intercontinental airline, one of the world's five most profitable and among the 20 largest ones. It is based in Dubai, one of the few cities in the world that pursues an open-skies policy, with more than 110 airlines in free and fair competition.
Its 77 all wide-bodied fleet includes six Boeing 747 freighters and is among the youngest in the skies, with an average age of 55 months - over 8 years less than the industry average. The airline plans to more than double its size by 2012.
Emirates presently has 96 aircraft pending delivery, worth nearly US$30 billion in list prices. This includes 45 Airbus A380s (two of them freighters), 26 Boeing 777-300ERs, 20 Airbus A340-600 HGWs, two A340-500s and three A310-300 freighters. Emirates announced the largest order in commercial aviation history at the 2003 Paris Air Show, when it added 71 new Airbus and Boeing aircraft worth US$19 billion to its order book.
The airline was the launch carrier for the new ultra long-haul A340-500, which started service on 1st December 2003 on the Sydney route. It also was the first airline to order the revolutionary A380-800 double-decker and will be the main launch carrier for the innovative A340-600 HGW. Emirates' 45 A380 orders, which it will start receiving next year, make it the largest customer of the Airbus super-jumbo.
Emirates operates services to 78 cities in 54 countries in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa, Indian subcontinent and Asia-Pacific. Since January 2004 the airline has launched services to ten new destinations, including the Seychelles, Seoul and Alexandria in the first half of 2005. Later this year it will start services to Hamburg, and in February 2006 to Beijing.
Emirates has codeshare agreements with Air India, Air Mauritius, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, South African Airways, SriLankan Airlines, and Thai Airways.
Emirates Airline includes Emirates SkyCargo and Destination & Leisure Management (D&LM), which manages Emirates Holidays, Arabian Adventures and Al Maha Desert Resort. The airline is part of the Emirates Group, which also includes associate companies Dnata, Mercator, Transguard and Galileo.
Visit Emirates online at: www.emirates.com
About Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, this year celebrates 20 years of commitment to technology innovation, industry leadership and corporate social responsibility. Information on Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.
Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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