UAE-based telco Du has launched Datamena, a carrier-neutral international transit and content hub, providing a connectivity interchange and services platform for international carriers, content and service providers in the Middle East. Based in the UAE, Datamena is aimed at attracting customers looking to expand their global footprint, and is designed as a growth accelerator for digital businesses in the UAE and the Gulf region. The Datamena interconnection platform provides data centre facilities, high speed connectivity and support services. The platform is designed to simplify business for carriers, operators and content providers by consolidating infrastructure and reducing IP costs. Solutions offered by Datamena include: colocation services, data centre connectivity and network connectivity services using diverse, reliable and resilient bandwidth and Tier 1 transit.
Datamena also hosts the newly-launched UAE Internet Exchange (UAE-IX), a neutral public peering exchange which was initiated by the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) and interconnects regional network operators and content providers, as well as global operators. UAE-IX was launched on 1 October 2012 with support from Germany’s DE-CIX, the central international internet exchange in Frankfurt and the world’s largest IX operator in terms of data throughput. UAE-IX is built on a fully redundant switching platform located in a neutral secure data centre in Dubai, and claims to reduce latency times by up to 80% and costs by up to 70% for providers based in the Gulf region. Moreover, UAE-IX will improve IP network resilience and robustness and will also help provide reliable connectivity within the Gulf region.
A press release noted that the Gulf region’s data traffic is soaring, and that internet service providers in the region have largely had to exchange their traffic via Europe, Asia or North America, leading to high latency rates. The UAE-IX venture aims to localise internet content and significantly improve routing efficiency. It also expects to attract internet service providers from further afield in Europe, Africa and Asia.