Dubai, 17 December 2013: Cisco announced today that the Saudi Telecom Company (STC), a leader in providing integrated communications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has become the first Service Provider in the Middle East region to select Cisco's Carrier Routing System,Cisco® CRS-X and Cisco's Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS). Once the new Cisco technology solutions are fully deployed, the enhanced STC network will provide the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with one of the most advanced telecommunications infrastructures in the world.
The intelligent, programmable, and scalable Cisco Carrier Routing System (CRS) already powers some of the world's largest service provider networks and will allow STC to deliver video, cloud, and mobile services effectively, as well as migrate their network infrastructures to 100G and beyond. With the proliferation of connected devices, people and processes (the Cisco® Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast estimates that in the Middle East and Africa alone, there will be 413 million total Internet users and nearly 850 million mobile users by 2017) the STC understands the importance of delivering technology solutions that will enable its customers to thrive in this age of phenomenal technological advances.
Furthermore, the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) will enable STC to provide customers with voice and video calling, unified voicemail messaging, presence and instant messaging as well as a variety of options and mobility features. This Unified Communication as-a-service (UCaaS) offering is well suited for customers who don't want to invest, deploy or manage these technologies. This solution will allow STC to provide customers communications and collaboration services more quickly, more efficiently with more flexibility as well as high security and control.
Highlights/Key Facts
- As well as being the first Service Provider in the Middle East to deploy Cisco CRS, STC is also one of the first 10 customers globally to deploy the solution and as well as one of the first in a multi-chassis configuration. With a ten times increase in capacity over a decade the CRS-X is the latest member of the CRS family and leverages the world's most scalable and programmable network processor, the Cisco nPower X1, which delivers new levels of performance and programmability.
- The Cisco CRS-X provides outstanding economical scale, IP + Optical network convergence, and a proven architecture that's delivered 10 times increase in bandwidth capacity. It offers advanced services intelligence, an environmentally-aware design, and system longevity. The upgraded network will support new and future revenue generating services and including LTE thus ensuring that STC has the capacity and programmability to meet the needs of its increasing customer base.
- The Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) will help STC to deliver more applications faster, in a virtualized environment. It offers new and extended capabilities for cloud-based unified communications and collaboration applications to customers (UCaaS). Applications are delivered within a highly secure, cloud-ready, virtualized platform under a centralized management system. The solution will enable the STC to differentiate itself in the highly competitive Service Provider market.
- In addition to the value collaboration will bring to STC customers such as closer teamwork, faster decision making, and ability to work from anywhere, the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution will deliver a unified user experience - the same one across a wide variety of devices and environments, as well as optimize resources and improve IT and business agility to focus more of STC resources on core competencies and business priorities thereby maintaining control and managing service levels, reliably.
Executive Quotes:
Dr. Khalid bin Hussain Al-Bayari, senior vice president for Technology and Operations, STC
"As a leading provider of integrated communications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, STC is continuously striving to maintain its leadership position in terms of introduction of latest solutions in the region to meet the needs of our customer. Cisco's solutions will help us continue to deliver the state-of-the-art network infrastructure that has always enabled us to cater to increasing customer needs as a direct result of tremendous growth in fixed and mobile broadband bandwidth."
Mike Watson, vice president, Cisco Middle East.
"We are delighted and honored that STC has chosen to work with Cisco to implement our Cisco Carrier Routing System and Hosted Collaboration Solution into their network. Cisco is at a very exciting, pivotal place being at forefront of Internet of Everything (IoE), an era where the Internet has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of everyone on our planet. The business value to be gained through the Internet of Everything is presenting a new level of opportunity for technology growth and innovation and over the next ten years, the one of the major opportunities will be for companies to evolve their organizations to thrive in the new environment. STC is already at the forefront of delivering change in Saudi Arabia by continuing to innovate and transform their business to meet the demands of our customers."
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Links / URLs:
- Middle East News: http://newsroom.cisco.com/me
- For more details about Cisco's Carrier Routing System, Cisco® CRS-X visit: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5763/index.html
- For more details about Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution visit: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11363/index.html
About the STC:
The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is a leader in providing integrated communications services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company is operating, and continuously responds to market requirements, keeping abreast of technology developments in telecommunications to meet the needs of our customers, especially in light of a changing world in terms of the role of telecommunications and its uses.
For more details visit: http://www.stc.com.sa/
About Cisco:
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com
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