Huawei Inks Strategic Alliance with Drake & Scull to Collaborate on Regional ICT Development Projects

Mobilk - Huawei—a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider—and Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI) a regional market leader in the integrated design, engineering and construction disciplines of General Contracting, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP), Water and Power, Rail and Oil and Gas have announced the signing of a strategic partnership that will see the two companies work together to assist organizations across the MENA region harness the growing potential of data center technology through a new jointly-created turnkey solution. 

The strategic alliance follows discussions held alongside this month’s GITEX Technology Week 2013 and will combine Huawei’s expertise in enterprise ICT infrastructure with DSI’s operational capabilities in data center development as well as their wealth of regional experience as an integrated engineering service provider. The new agreement was formalized by Mr. Dong Wu, Vice President of Huawei Enterprise Middle East, and Mr. Khaldoun Tabari, CEO of Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI).

“We are living in an era of big data with organizations in the region demanding infrastructure and networks that need to be highly secure, scalable and reliable,” commented Dong Wu, Vice President of Huawei Enterprise Middle East. “As part of Huawei’s commitment to cross-industry collaboration and customer-centric innovation, this latest alliance with DSI will enable Huawei to further apply over a decade of experience in data center solutions to help customer fully maximize their IT potential for delivering on the bottom line.”  

“Creating a robust and scalable data center requires a high level of precision not just in core IT hardware, but also in the design and deployment of that technology within a set project to offer 24-hour operational service,” added Mr. Khaldoun Tabari, CEO of Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI). “Together with Huawei, we look forward to combining the best practices of both our organizations in supporting partners across the MENA region to get the most out of their ICT investments.” 

In particular, the alliance will see Huawei focus on providing ICT solutions covering IP networking, Unified Communications & Collaborations (UCC) and Data Centre Solutions. DSI will emphasize providing Turnkey EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) Design & Build solutions, and to undertake all aspects of the development of data centers in collaboration with Huawei. The integration of Huawei & DSI services will provide companies with a one-stop turnkey solution to develop large scale data centers across all vertical sectors. 

Today organizations dependent on legacy IT infrastructure in the MENA region are being challenged to handle an exponential growth of their digital assets as well as the demands of real-time operational visibility. Many are eager to look at ways to efficiently share and protect those assets via emerging data center solutions. According to market intelligence firm IDC, over 40% of CIOs in the Middle East have reported that they are scoping investments in analytics and big data technologies in 2013, which includes investments in data center infrastructure.

Research group Gartner recently estimated that global spending on data centers will hit $143bn in 2013 and $149bn next year , a steady growth trend albeit slower than earlier forecasts. 

Along with the advancement of cloud computing and virtualization technology, Huawei has rapidly developed its own data center solutions portfolio now serving local organizations in the government, healthcare, education, transportation, and energy sectors, to name a few. Some of the company’s most recent endeavors have also included a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Intel to develop collaborative offerings for server, storage data centers and cloud computing.

As a global engineering and construction conglomerate for more than a century, DSI capabilities and expertise range from offering one-stop turnkey EPC design and build solutions to all aspects of the development of data centers.