FEATURE: SDN
and telecommunications, which have
several hundred locations and complex
networks.
One of the benefits of the Middle East
market is that it is a lot more “greenfield”
than other regions, with organisations
not having large existing legacy
investments that they need to protect.
Conversely, organisations here are a lot
more willing to adopt new technology
than we see in other markets, as they are
eager to leapfrog other businesses and
reap the benefits.
We are seeing explosive growth
in interest for SDN and our own
Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI)
and we see a lot of opportunities in
the pipeline. So this trend will definitely
continue. Network traffic across the
region is growing exponentially – for
instance, we see the Middle East and
Africa having the world’s fastest cloud
growth rate, from 17 exabytes in 2012
to 157 exabytes in 2017. The Global
Cloud Index predicts that through
2019, the Middle East and Africa region
is expected to have the highest cloud
traffic growth rate (41% CAGR).
Middle East CEOs must have ROI
discussions to decide which time is best for
transitioning to SDN and ACI. According
to internal research, we have found our
customers who have deployed ACI have
greater business agility by reducing
network provisioning by 58%, lowered
capital expenses by reducing CAPEX by
25%, reduced management costs by
21%, lowered operating costs with a 45%
reduction in power and cooling costs, and
increased optimization of computing and
storage by 10-20%.
Companies that are early adopters or
innovators can adopt SDN to future-proof
their IT and move to a Fast IT model.
Companies must also educate employees,
and ensure their IT departments have
people with the right skill sets.
Verticals leading the way
The Telecoms sector is leading the
way when it comes to verticals and
it is the networking vendors when it
comes to the IT sector. du was the first
telecom company in the world to deploy
www.intelligentcio.com
ASHLEY WOODBRIDGE
Customer Solutions Architect,
Cisco UAE
SDN IS ESPECIALLY
EFFECTIVE FOR SECTORS
LIKE BANKING AND
TELECOMMUNICATIONS,
WHICH HAVE SEVERAL
HUNDRED LOCATIONS
AND COMPLEX
NETWORKS
Cisco ACI for its next-generation data
centre. Our largest ACI installation in
the Middle East to date is with Saudi
Telecom Company (STC), which is
building three data centres to accelerate
and streamline cloud adoption in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Future of SDN
SDN is expected to see an increased
uptake in 2016 from service providers
and enterprises. Customers no longer
want to buy a series of boxes and are
looking to vendors to deliver endto-end systems. CIOs are expecting
simple, flexible, automated, and agile
infrastructure, so SDN is definitely going
to be here for the long haul.
Will we see enhancements and
iterations made to it? Of course, we
can expect the technology to evolve
and adapt as it develops, but I think
the underlying principals driving SDN
adoption are not going to change, so
the technology isn’t going anywhere.
INTELLIGENTCIO
49