Q. How is network automation helping carriers connect faster into the Middle East region?
The Middle East region has always been an important strategic gateway for traffic between Europe, Asia and Africa. Over the last ten years, the region’s digital infrastructure has evolved enormously and we’ve seen the arrival of many new data centre, internet exchanges and network providers.
At the same time, countries such as the UAE and Qatar have emerged as major business hubs that have attracted a large number of multinationals.
As a result, carriers are increasingly looking for fast and secure network access into the Middle East region from key markets across Europe and Asia.
We are seeing significant interest from global carriers in leveraging the network automation and connectivity capabilities of the Console Connect Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform to connect into the Middle East. The platform offers carriers a much simpler and quicker way to make layer 2 connections on-demand - and it lets them do that using a network they trust.
Q. How can carriers use the Console Connect platform to connect into the Middle East?
The automated Console Connect fabric is underpinned by PCCW Global’s MPLS network. As most of the carrier community knows, this is a Tier 1 IP network that offers extensive global reach.
This means carrier customers provisioning bandwidth on the Console Connect platform can experience improved network performance, such as lower latency and higher availability of guaranteed throughput.
Because PCCW Global’s network offers multiple routes between the Middle East and Europe, Asia and Africa, carriers using the platform can also experience improved network resiliency and redundancy when they connect into the region.
We offer highly competitive pricing for bandwidth into the Middle East, which is fully automated and available as a PAYG model through the Console Connect portal. Carrier customers in the region can also resell Console Connect and bundle services for their enterprise customers.
Q. How can the platform also support the strong demand for cloud services in the region?
The Middle East is one of the fastest growing regions when it comes to consuming cloud services, and we’ve seen major cloud providers like Microsoft, AWS and Oracle all launch data centres in the region in the last year.
The Console Connect platform is directly connected to major cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure Expressroute, Google Cloud Platform and IBM Cloud, which customers can access from our growing number of data centre locations worldwide.
The platform is therefore a great fit for carrier customers looking to connect their enterprise customers quickly and easily to the cloud in the Middle East.
Q. How can carriers access the Console Connect platform?
We have already on boarded a number of data centre, carrier and enterprise partners with a presence in the Middle East onto the platform.
Console Connect is now enabled in key data centres in Dubai, Doha, Fujairah, Jeddah and Cairo. Carriers on the platform can make direct connections to these locations and more than 350 other data centre worldwide.
Our ecosystem is always expanding and carrier customers can easily interconnect to the automated fabric using one of our NNI ports. Once the port is configured, customers can begin making instant connections between the NNI port and any other port on the Console Connect fabric – and they can do this either through the Console Connect online portal or through an open API.
Q. And can you give an example of how Console Connect is already helping carriers connect into the region?
At the virtual Capacity Middle East event, we announced our latest collaboration with the cloud networking company neutrality.one.
neutrality.one is a now using our platform to provide global connectivity services to its enterprise customers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Console Connect is helping their enterprise customers connect around the world and to the cloud using secure and high-performance networking.
The collaboration is a great example of how we are helping our carrier customers extend their global reach while at the same providing their end customers with new levels of flexibility, reliability and control. We really are helping carriers extend their backbone network at the click of a button.
