CASE STUDY

As part of 10X , Dubai Electricity and Water Authority mobilised its innovation unit to create a new entity called Digital DEWA , which uses innovation in Artificial Intelligence and digital services to meet the current and future requirements .

Digital DEWA required an innovative , agile data hub , and thus Moro Hub was established . Forming the backbone of Digital DEWA , Moro Hub was introduced to fulfil the need for an innovative and agile data centre .

From a solutions perspective , CommScope is known for its industry-leading copper and optical fibre-optic cabling which is optimised for density , speed and simplicity and has a clear migration path for higher speeds . Additionally , CommScope ’ s global delivery and technical support collaborated with Moro Hub to offer products and on-site expertise that would be needed to keep the project on schedule and within budget .

Building the infrastructure

The requirements included building a best-in-region colocation data centre to support UAE ’ s digital transformation . And supporting A-list colocation clients with high-density , high-speed performance , simplified management and a clear migration path to higher speeds .

Harun Cakin , Sales Director , Gulf and

Eastern Mediterranean , CommScope

“ Our ambition at Moro Hub is to be the number one data and digital transformation provider globally . To do that , we need to provide a complete facility , technology , and service ecosystem to support our customers as their infrastructure needs evolve .”

“ As networks become more complex , especially within data centres , and the dependency on them becomes greater , it is often a challenge to plan change quickly and safely . Hence lead times often extend far beyond what they should require , simply because of selfimposed safeguards in the process ,” said Mohammad Bin Sulaiman , CEO of Moro Hub .

Selection of a technology partner

After reviewing the initial network design and goals , Moro Hub and CommScope along with the global technology integrator , PTS , began working on the network design .

Network topology

The decision was made early on to design the data centre ’ s fabric network using spine-and-leaf topology . This any-to-any architecture is crucial for Moro Hub ’ s colocation customers since additional spine switches can be added and connected to every leaf to increase capacity whenever required . In addition , adding new switches does not require any re-architecting of the network , eliminating downtime .

A key challenge early in the planning involved selecting a technology partner to provide cabling and connectivity . Since Moro Hub presented an ambitious vision , they collaborated with CommScope , a global provider that possesses the technical expertise and experience to serve as both an advisor and a supplier .

The leaf-and-spine model is optimised to move data in an east-west flow , enabling servers to co-operate in delivering cloud-based applications . In this topology , networks are spread across multiple leaf-and-spine switches , making the leaf-and-spine switch layer critical for delivering maximum scale and performance .

Each leaf switch is connected to every spine switch , creating a highly resilient any-to-any structure . The mesh of fibre links creates a high-capacity network resource or fabric that is shared with all attached devices . All fabric connections run at the same speed . The higher the speed , the higher the capacity of the mesh network , often called a fabric network .

Images for illustration only

Fabric networks require a large number of fibre connections , particularly in the leaf-switch layer . Equipment vendors continuously work to increase the density of their line cards in order to keep pace . With the increasing density , cabling connectivity and management become more important .

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