Saudi Telecom Company Dials Up Cisco Technology to Bring Data Center Hosting Services to Saudi Market

Cisco, VMware and EMC Coalition Help to Secure Strategic Data Center Win to Enable STC to Introduce Managed IT Services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

| Source: Cisco Cisco

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA--(Marketwire - May 24, 2010) -  Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced today that the Saudi Telecom Company (STC), a leader in providing integrated communications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has chosen Cisco technology solutions to introduce managed data center services to the Saudi market. The contract, which will be delivered by Cisco partner Wipro, represents the first Vblock Infrastructure Package (VIP) win for Cisco in the Middle East region, involving the strategic collaboration that combines best-of-breed virtualization, networking, compute and storage technologies from Cisco, EMC and VMware, with end-to-end vendor accountability.

Data centers are changing in architecture, new technologies, application architectures, regulations, efficiency focus, and application and workload demands. These changes are causing one of the most comprehensive IT infrastructure transformations in the past decade. Cisco Managed Data Center services will enable the STC to meet the challenge to address these changes.

Highlights / Key Facts:

  • The Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) coalition, formed jointly by Cisco, EMC and VMware, represents an unprecedented level of collaboration in development, services, and partner enablement that will help to reduce the infrastructure virtualization risks the STC could face in private cloud implementation.
  • Cisco partner Wipro, a leading global provider of integrated business, technology and process solutions, will deliver the Cisco infrastructure to the STC. The Cisco global and regional team, focused on service provider data center cloud, in collaboration with the regional VCE team conducted a series of dedicated data center focused workshop sessions to share best practices in designing and operating data center solutions with the STC. They also provided a Saudi market specific services creation and market demand analysis for revenue calculations.
  • Cisco's data center services will help to lower power costs as well manage and measure the STC's IT operational expenses while increasing support for virtual desktops and mission-critical applications and also meeting or exceeding end-user demands
  • Cisco managed data center services will enable the STC to focus their resources on core competencies by providing centralized application provisioning, patch management, monitoring, and support. The Cisco IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) will assist the STC to cost-effectively provide these services.
  • The agreement will encompass the deployment of a number of Cisco Unified Computing solution technologies within the STC's data center to include the Cisco Unified Computing System chassis, blade servers, SAN Switches, EMC Storage and Backup and VMware vSphere.

Executive Quotes:

Samir Matboly, vice president, Enterprise Business Unit, STC
"The STC's goal is to provide integrated communications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, by continuously to responding to market requirements, and keeping abreast of developments in technology to enable us to meet the needs of our customers. The Cisco team has demonstrated the ability to provide the STC Data Center 3.0 vision and technology solutions to equip us with the right technology for managed data center services and cloud computing."

Wayne Fullerton, managing director for Cisco in Saudi Arabia
"The demand for managed services in the information technology (IT) market globally is growing as companies strive to streamline their IT costs although it is still a new concept into the Saudi Service Provider market. By joining forces with EMC and VMware, Cisco has teamed with the best eco-system partners and technology providers to provide the STC with the competitive edge that will allow them to stay ahead of the game when it comes to delivering their customer needs."

Links / URLs:

About the STC:
The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is a leader in providing integrated communications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company is operating, and continuously responds to market requirements, keeping abreast of technology developments in telecommunications to meet the needs of our customers, especially in light of a changing world in terms of the role of telecommunications and its uses.
For more details visit: http://www.stc.com.sa/

About Cisco:
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, this year celebrates 25 years of technology innovation, operational excellence and corporate social responsibility. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in emerging markets is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

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