Equinix and Omantel agree to build new Equinix data centre in Oman
Equinix Inc, the global interconnection and data centre company, and the Oman Telecommunications Company( Omantel), have announced they have entered into a joint venture to deliver data centre and interconnection services to customers in the Middle East through the development of a new network-dense data centre that will be located in Barka, near Muscat. This joint venture will establish the first world-class, carrier-neutral hub in Oman where carriers, content providers and cloud providers colocate critical IT infrastructure.
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Oman is strategically positioned between Asia, Africa and Europe, and the new Equinix International Business Exchange( IBX) data centre will create a regional interconnection hub with ultra-low latencies between global business markets.
Based on demand and requirements, customers in the GCC and wider MENA region can also leverage other Equinix data centres in the region for dual access to content providers, allowing carriers, content providers and cloud providers to further build resilience into their IT and network infrastructure. Talal Al Mamari, CEO, Omantel, said:“ We are excited to work with Equinix on this project and accelerate how users experience cloud, content and next-gen communications.
“ Today, data centre 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.”
Retail sector continues to grow in Oman
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significant spaces across the GCC countries within the next five years, according to a recent report from Alpen Capital, which further sees the market growing as much as US $ 313 billion by 2021.
The market confidence in Oman is hugely attributed to the country’ s soaring economic growth, projected to rise to 2.9 % this year from 1.1 % in 2017.
Shaikh Raid Bin Abdullah Al Araimi, Vice Chairman – Al Raid Group
With the growing interest of residents in new lifestyle choices, as well as the influx of tourists entering Oman, industry observers are seeing the country’ s retail sector in a prime position to significantly contribute to the GCC’ s continuing retail growth. More than 6.2 million square metres of retail development are expected to take up
Among the GCC countries, Oman is seen as the fastest growing economy with tourism being one of the key components, according to a report by Colliers International.
Shaikh Raid Bin Abdullah Al Araimi, Vice Chairman, Al Raid Group, said:“ The retail race in Oman is on and indeed, it is attracting the region’ s attention as many investments are flowing into the local market.
“ Oman’ s retail story is still being written and we are keen to make it a continuing success story in the years to come.”
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