R&M provides robust and highly-secure cabling solution for HyperOne hyper market's mission critical network infrastructure

The first retail outlet of this mega store was opened at the entrance of Sheikh Zayed city and stocks over 60 thousand items. The branch has seen a daily footfall of 65 thousand visitors in summer and 35 thousand visitors in winter. This overwhelming success prompted expansion and the chain looked to establish a second branch at 10th of Ramadan City on the Cairo Ismaileya Desert Road. This massive retail facility carries a broad selection of products including a wide range of fresh food, fast moving goods, non-food commodities, textile and furniture.

One of the critical requirements for the new outlet was to have a robust network infrastructure in place in order to run sensitive online applications necessary for the retail process. The cabling used for this network would have to withstand harsh operational conditions such as large temperature variations and the effects of powerful electric fields generated from the coolers and ovens distributed through the hyper market. This tolerance was absolutely vital to the smooth operation of the network.

Furthermore, beyond the physical robustness of the system, network security was earmarked as a key consideration given its use for sensitive online applications and monetary transactions at checkout counters.

Mr. Amr Afify, Network Unit Manager at HyperOne elaborates, "When we decided to invest in the infrastructure for the new retail outlet, we were determined to account for every factor so as to assure the long term performance of the system. Through our careful evaluation of the structured cabling market, we were able to identify R&M as the vendor of choice. Their broad product portfolio and expertise in both copper and fiber optic cabling meant that we could rely on them to deliver the best cabling solution. The company is well known in the market for having the highest quality products and the fact that they offer a 25 year systems warranty is clear evidence of this."

Convinced by R&M's innovative cabling solutions and excellent support services in the country, HyperOne began the installation of a complete copper and fiber optic cabling infrastructure for its network. The implementation was carried out by QUIP, R&M's certified partner in Egypt. The project involved R&M's Real10 Cat6 SFTP copper cabling solution and OM2 fiber optic cables. These were selected as they could withstand all environmental conditions from MICE1 to MICE3 as well as the effects of electric fields generated by devices within the hyper market.

In addition, to ensure that the components matched and surpassed the expected Ingress Protection (IP) ratings, R&M indoor cabinets were deployed. Thanks to this, the physical infrastructure can now withstand extreme mechanical, ingress, climatic and environmental conditions.

Given the sensitive nature of applications being deployed on the network, special considerations were made beyond the physical influences. R&M's three layer security system was implemented to mitigate human error and prevent the cabling systems from being manipulated either intentionally or unintentionally. The security system also provides up-to-date information on the network's status and lets HyperOne reduce the cost of changes and extensions during scaling of the network.

Engineer Hisham Magdy, Network Administrator at Hyper One commended R&M's professionalism throughout the project. He said, "In any project, the actual performance of the network is essentially dependent on the components being used and their installation. With R&M, we now have an application-neutral network that is consistent, durable and future-proof. The added advantage is that with R&M's security systems, we also have complete control over the entire solution."

Mr. Effat Ahmed, QUIP Managing Director concludes, "The key to winning the contract and carrying out a successful implementation is the fact that R&M has a local presence through QUIP, great technical capabilities and highest Swiss quality products. We have built a great working relationship with the customer and hope to extend this to future projects as well."

Thanks to the overwhelming success of the project, HyperOne has already awarded R&M the cabling contract for its next undertaking which will be a new branch in Solaymanya city on Cairo-Alex road.