Etisalat UAE, from e&, bolsters edge cloud solution with uCPE services powered by ADVA and NEC

Khaled Murshed of Etisalat UAE

ADVA and NEC Corporation has announced that Etisalat UAE, the telecoms pillar of e& is offering on-demand virtual services to its corporate customers using ADVA’s suite of Ensemble NFV technologies with the solution system integration conducted by NEC in close collaboration with Etisalat UAE, who are onboarding various network functions on top of the platform.

The new universal customer premises equipment (uCPE) offering gives enterprises across the Middle East quick and secure access to the industry’s widest range of multi-vendor virtual technologies. With the ability to harness virtual network functions (VNFs), including SD-WAN, routing, firewall, DDoS prevention, and IoT applications, Etisalat UAE’s business clients can try out services without risk and seize new revenue opportunities in an instant.

“At Etisalat UAE, we continue to enrich businesses by providing solutions, harnessing advanced technologies and maintaining our cutting-edge telecom infrastructure offerings,” says Khaled Murshed, chief technology and information officer at Etisalat UAE. “We live in the ‘connectivity renaissance’ age, which offers us multiple opportunities to maximise value creation for our customers. Our new uCPE services enable our business customers across the Middle East to accelerate their digitisation journey by supporting the creation of new business models as well as applying innovation to their current processes.

Until recently, delivering our dynamic, individualised offerings required multiple hardware platforms in several different sizes to be stored in multiple locations to meet stringent SLAs. Today, as part of always being focused on enhancing the journey for our business customers, we are now providing every application on a single platform, through the reliable support of our long-term partner NEC, combined with ADVA’s Ensemble software suite. Not only have we made our business processes efficient by optimising hardware resources, but our customers can now take advantage of such open standards-based solutions at highly competitive prices and attractive feature points.”

By leveraging ADVA’s entire Ensemble product family on white box platforms, Etisalat UAE’s government and enterprise customers benefit from the software-based uCPE solution and its ancillary services. The offering means virtual services can be enabled on demand and gives businesses in 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia and North Africa access to the Ensemble Harmony Ecosystem. This multi-vendor environment offers unrivaled variety and choice of virtual products. Etisalat UAE’s new solution features Ensemble Connector as the NFVI platform.

This provides an embedded vRouter function using 6WIND’s Turbo Router. Other key components include Ensemble Orchestrator and Virtualisation Director, which provide simple and effective management and orchestration (MANO) architecture. ADVA’s virtual edge cloud technology streamlines Etisalat UAE’s customer deployments, improves operational simplicity and empowers Etisalat UAE to roll out secure virtualised services at scale.

“In close collaboration with NEC, Etisalat UAE’s uCPE solution will enhance the agility and productivity of enterprises and governments seeking to accelerate their digitisation efforts. Etisalat UAE is an innovative Tier 1 service provider that is now free to select best-of-breed components at each layer and optimise cost through disaggregation, including white box, VNFs and NFVI/MANO. What’s more, with the ability to offer a wide variety of virtual applications on the same platform, Etisalat UAE will play a vital role in offering added value for each customer by selling innovative new services,” comments Mike Heffner, GM of edge cloud, ADVA. “Our Ensemble Connector solution ensures that Etisalat UAE can now ship uCPE to a customer site and provision it securely with zero-touch provisioning. This provides a new level of dynamism and efficiency that will be key to accelerating digitisation throughout the Middle East.”

NEC has been an open networks advocate since the early stages of digital transformation and engaged in a full range of network domains that include core, transport and RAN. It has also been a long-term business partner to Etisalat UAE, consistently providing solutions such as multi-vendor telecom cloud platforms as well as domain automation and end-to-end service orchestration solutions from its subsidiary Netcracker. This helps Etisalat UAE bring innovative services to market faster and ensure superior customer experiences. In this project, NEC capitalised on its comprehensive system integration capabilities and worked together with its global partner ADVA to design and implement the new uCPE solution.

“We are honored to be Etisalat’s partner of choice to achieve greater simplicity and efficiency for its uCPE services through our close global partnership with ADVA. It’s a boost for Etisalat UAE’s business customers, who will benefit from quick and easy access to voice, internet and security applications at cost-effective entry points,” says Hideyuki Ogata, GM of the service provider solutions department at NEC Corporation. “As an open networks promoter and cloud partner of Etisalat UAE, combined with our support and comprehensive expertise, NEC looks forward to its dedicated and continuous support in advancing Etisalat UAE services across all industries, from education and healthcare to e-government and smart cities within the MEA region.”

Etisalat Group has changed its brand identity to e&, effective from February 23, 2022. Its strategy aims to accelerate growth through the creation of a resilient business model representing its main business pillars. The telecoms business currently continues to be led by Etisalat UAE in e&’s home market and by existing subsidiaries for international operations, upholding the group’s rich telecoms heritage, bolstering the strong telecoms network and maximising value for its various customer segments.

Ramping up digital services for individual customers to elevate their digital-first lifestyle, e& life brings next-generation technologies through smart connectivity platforms in entertainment, retail and financial technology. To enable the digital transformation of governments, large-scale enterprises and corporates, e& enterprise focuses on maximising value through its end-to-end solutions in cybersecurity, cloud, internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as deploying mega projects. e& capital allows the group to focus its efforts on driving new mergers and acquisitions while maximising shareholder value and strengthening global presence.

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_OR @jcIoTnow

RECENT ARTICLES

Semtech enhances global connectivity with NTN support in HL78 modules

Posted on: March 29, 2024

Semtech Corporation has announced the integration of non-terrestrial network (NTN) support into its HL series LPWA modules, specifically the HL7810 and HL7812. This significant advancement showcases a leap forward in enabling uninterrupted global connectivity even amidst the most challenging conditions.

Read more

Enhance EV charging performance with cellular connectivity

Posted on: March 28, 2024

Electric vehicles (EVs) are steadily growing their market share at the expense of internal combustion engine vehicles. The growth is fuelled by several factors. Perhaps most importantly, prices for EVs have started to drop as competition in the industry is intensifying. New players and models are emerging, prompting several established EV makers to lower their

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more