The Cisco Visual Networking Index forecasts that by 2021, the MENA will have 2.4 billion networked devices (up from 1.7 billion in 2016).
Zain Group and Cisco have announced a key milestone in expanding the telecommunications operators IP/MPLS network.
As a telecommunications operator serving more than 45 million customers across eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Zain Groups network infrastructure faces an increase of expectations and workloads driven by the growth of devices and connections, the company spokesperson stated. The annual Cisco Visual Networking Index forecast projects a 12-fold increase in Middle East and Africa mobile data traffic from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 65%.
Zain Group is leveraging Cisco segment routing platforms and WAN automation to bring the benefits of distributed intelligence and centralised control to its network.
The demands of the digital era means that we must prioritise improving speed and efficiency, defining a growth strategy based on new services, and ensuring security, said Henri Kassab, Managing Director, International, Wholesale and Roaming, Zain Group.
The deployment is a move toward network automation and represents a step towards a more resilient network that delivers high bandwidth, enhanced application intelligence for 5G, and a significantly improved end user experience that defines the network of the future, the release states.
The capabilities of Ciscos segment routing, automation and our best-of-breed routing engines enable Zain Group to implement a programmable network that allows them to rapidly adapt to future customer needs, said Ali Amer, Managing Director, Global Service Provider Sales, Cisco Middle East and Africa.
Other benefits Zain Group will gain by modernising their global IP/MPLS architecture include simplified operations, programmability, scalability and increased network availability.
The Cisco Visual Networking Index forecasts that by 2021, the MENA will have 2.4 billion networked devices (up from 1.7 billion in 2016) and 1.4 networked devices per capita, while 75% of all networked devices will be mobile connected in 2021.
