Equinix has signed an agreement with Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) to establish a joint venture in Barka, the capital of Oman.
With the new joint venture, the companies aim to provide data center and interconnection services to carriers, content providers and cloud providers in the Middle East. It will enable them to collocate their critical IT infrastructure.
The venture will feature Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data center, and will work as a regional interconnection hub between businesses in Asia, Africa and Europe. It will provide ultra-low latencies to the customers, as Oman is strategically situated between Asia, Africa and Europe.
New IBX data center in Oman will cover a colocation space of 18,600 square feet. There will be total 750 cabinets at full build, which will come into operation in three phases. The first phase (250 cabinets) will open for business by second quarter in 2019.
For dual access, the customers in GCC and MENA regions will be able to leverage other Equinix data centers as well. It will help them to further build resilience into their IT and network infrastructure.
“We are excited to work with Equinix on this project and accelerate how users experience cloud, content and next-gen communications. Today, data center infrastructure sits at the heart of global ICT and enables all of us to enjoy the cloud-based apps and services we use every day,” said Talal Al Mamari, CEO, Omantel.
“The planned IBX data center with Equinix in Oman represents a massive step forward for Oman and the Middle Eastern ICT markets. Working on this project will allow both companies to bring together their strong assets and enable a new era of telecommunications both locally and globally. Such partnership will further enhance Oman’s competitiveness in the global digital economy and trade.”
Being a leading communication provider with cable landings and connectivity, the Omantel will boost the new IBX data center with connectivity to strategic cable landing stations (CLS) and subsea cable systems. Hence, the customers will get redundant latency, as well as significant cost savings and increased performance and security.
“We see significant potential for Oman as a market generally and, in particular, supporting CLS requirements as subsea cable momentum accelerates. It’s all about meeting the growing need for interconnection – private data exchange between businesses,” said Eric Schwartz, President, EMEA, Equinix.
“In the digital age, companies need to reach everywhere, interconnect everyone and integrate everything, and they need to do it out at the digital edge, where commerce, population centers and digital ecosystems meet. Our joint venture with Omantel will do exactly that.”
Also read: Equinix closes acquisition of Australian datacenter provider Metronode
Both the companies will equally contribute to the joint venture, which got established on June 26, 2018.
