Mobily Selects EMC Solutions to Manage Essential Applications and Customer Data
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: EMC Corporation, the world leader in information management and storage, today announced that Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), the innovative Saudi mobile operator, has assigned EMC to provide business continuity services that help Mobily in protecting its customers' data. EMC plans to provide Mobily with high-end business continuity and information management solutions that will offer reliable and continuous access to its data and applications in order to maintain the highest level of services for customers.
Mr. Ahmed Hassan, CIO of Mobily, said, "Mobily already has a solid customer base, and we are now in the process of expanding our network to reach more customers in the Kingdom. To attract and retain those customers, we rely upon various elements and one of them is a solid information system, enabling us to provide the highest level of services, so it is essential that those systems and data are available to us at all times."
The Saudi GSM operator will deploy systems from the EMC Symmetrix DMX-3 series of enterprise level networked storage systems at two sites in the Kingdom. More than 120 terabytes (1 terabyte is approximately equal to 1,000GB) of data will be managed by the system. Symmetrix DMX-3 systems also provide Mobily with full replication capabilities and failover protection to ensure high availability for all of its applications and information, assuring fast access to vital data such as call records, customer details and emails.
"We have selected EMC's integrated storage solutions because they are able to meet and exceed the very demanding requirements that we have for business continuity and disaster recovery," said Hassan. "Telecoms operators have to have an 'always-on' service, and by deploying these solutions at two main sites, we will be able to duplicate all of our essential systems, to ensure constant availability for our systems."
EMC is the market leader in business continuity systems that ensure that data-intensive organizations, such as Mobily, are able to operate without interruption to services. The project with Mobily will include EMC's industry standard storage platform, advanced business continuity software as well as direct support and consultancy from EMC's personnel in the Kingdom.
Mohammed Amin, General Manager of EMC Middle East, said, "Telecoms operators have many requirements for their information systems - they create large volumes of data and they need constant access from those systems. EMC solutions are in use with many of the largest telecoms companies worldwide, and we have a depth of experience in this sector that helps us to develop products and solutions that address the specific, high-end challenges of telecoms operators."
Habib Mahakian, Country Manager of EMC KSA, added, "EMC has a very strong presence in Saudi Arabia, and this, coupled with the experience we have gained working with almost all of the key operators in the Middle East, gives us a unique strength in the regional telecoms sector that we bring to our relationship with Mobily. We are very pleased that they have chosen our business continuity solutions to support them as they continue to build services for the Kingdom."
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About Mobily
Mobily is the official brand name of Etihad Etisalat, the 2nd mobile service provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Established in accordance with a 2004 royal decree, the ownership of the company is two-fold: A Saudi ownership, comprising public investors holding 20% of the company's shareholding, while private investors own a 45% stake. The balance of 35% is owned by the Etisalat of UAE.
Mobily launched its services on the 25th of May 2005 and in less than a year since its launch, Mobily's customers have reached 3.8 millions in all the prepaid and postpaid packages, beating the record in the Middle East and North Africa. Today, Mobily network is in all cities and major towns. This is in addition to more than 13,000 kilometers of highways so far, covered by Mobily independent coverage.
Mobily's plan is to 90 % of the populated territories of the Kingdom by end of 2006. Mobily with its major contractors, Alcatel, Motorola, Ericsson, and Huawei are working around the clock to complete the planned coverage. Mobily's has also launched 3.5G services on the 27th of June 2006, covering 19 cities in the kingdom. During the first two months of operations, Mobily had more than 200,000 active subscribers in the 3G and 3.5G, being described as the biggest 3G mobile operator in Saudi Arabia.
In terms of services, it is worthy to mention that Mobily was also the first mobile operator in the Kingdom that introduced the added value services of MMS, locations based service (LBS), international roaming for prepaid SIM cards in addition to GPRS and GPRS EDGE roaming, as well as other services. Mobily's workforce exceeds 2000 employees with 80% of Saudization, and was the first to introduce female sales outlets in the telecom sector.
About EMC
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world leader in products, services and solutions for information storage and management that help organizations extract the maximum value from their information, at the lowest total cost, across every point in the information lifecycle. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.
EMC and EMC Symmetrix are registered trademarks of EMC Corporation. Other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
© Press Release 2006
