Q. Can you give us a brief about your organisation & its recent activities?
datamena offers carriers, cloud and content service providers and enterprises the most dynamic ecosystem in the Middle East. We deliver connectivity, data centre services and exchange hub services. Our quality of service and customer experience matches or surpasses what is available in other communications hubs around the world.
Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen our ecosystem grow to include more than 100 partners. They are able to interconnect, collaborate and do business seamlessly from one central location in the Middle East. We are seeing an increasing interest from Cloud service providers and a whole range of enterprises.
Q. What have been datamena’s key highlights and developments in the Middle East over the past year?
Our carrier-neutral business hub is located in Dubai at the intersection of some of the fastest growing markets. Our connectivity interchange and data centre service gives network operators, content providers and enterprises a platform to launch and grow their business in the Middle East by interconnecting with others.
We are truly removing the limits on how our customer can achieve success, by providing connectivity solutions that are unique and innovative to the market.
We are now connected to the SEA-ME-WE-5 cable system enabling us to offer customers direct global connectivity to the world’s communications hubs. The system provides an alternative high-capacity and high-availability route that accommodates future demand between Europe and Asia. It positions us to serve the bandwidth needs of the future.
At the same time, we connect the world’s leading cloud providers and enable them to rapidly deploy new applications and services across the region. We have dedicated ourselves to cloud enablement and supporting the overall transformation of the ICT ecosystem.
Q. What are the major trends in the wholesale market and how is datamena planning to capitalise on those?
At datamena, we value and promote collaboration, as digital transformation impacts our market these things are more important than ever before. We must learn from organisations across the value chain and deliver the services of the future together.
Our hub at datamena presents a unique opportunity for content providers, carriers and cloud service providers to connect and collaborate. We will continue to build our dynamic ecosystem to match the growing needs of the industry and promote new ways of thinking.
Cloud is changing ICT across every sector and we are playing a critical role in cloud enablement. As cloud goes mainstream in the Middle East, we offer a central meeting place where cloud service providers can interconnect and collaborate to deliver cloud services locally.
Cloud is influencing enterprise demands and how service providers operate both directly and indirectly. With this increase, we are seeing our role become about cloud enablement and supporting customer success in the cloud.
Q. What are your strategic priorities in 2017 and what announcements can we expect from datamena in the region this year?
In 2017 we will focus on retaining our leadership status and continuing to grow our presence within the marketplace.
One of our priorities is to ensure that we are providing the most dynamic ecosystem in the Middle East. Collaborating and peering with new partners will be key to the development of our industry-leading communications hub and we are dedicated to attracting more content, media and cloud providers to our ecosystem. The more players that are present in datamena the stronger the ecosystem becomes.
We will also be looking at improving responsiveness, agility, and flexibility to meet dynamic customer requirements. In today’s market, you have to move faster to serve demand while demonstrating true agility. With that we will work to deliver excellence in customer experience.
In addition, we will be making upgrades to the UAE-IX to ensure it is delivering an optimum experience for partners. Throughout 2017 we will actively search for new ways that we add value further value to our customers’ businesses and operations.
Q. What do you hope to achieve out of your attendance at the Capacity Middle East event?
Capacity Middle East represents a great opportunity to network with our existing customers and other service providers.
As an open platform for carriers, content and cloud providers, this has become the go-to event of the year for operators and service providers in the Middle East.
We look forward to sharing our industry insights, collaborating and networking with like-minded businesses across the globe and developing the innovations of the future.
