UAE's integrated telecommunications company du said it has joined hands with California-based Equinix to set up a carrier-neutral hub in the region for delivering data center and interconnection services to its customers in the Middle East region.

With the setting up of the hub in the region, all carriers, content providers, cloud providers, financial service and enterprise customers will be able to colocate critical data infrastructure, said Equinix, a leading interconnection and data center company.

Through this alliance, customers of du and Equinix will benefit from close proximity to the UAE and regional market and have the opportunity to connect to more than 4,000 customers across Platform Equinix for du.

The first phase of the data center is expected to be completed and open for business by January 1, 2013, it added.

Equinix, which has about 90 data facilities globally and 4,000 customers including IBM and HSBC, has bought a newly-built mid-sized data centre in Dubai and will invest $40 million in the project.

To underpin the alliance’s initial business offering, Equinix has acquired a newly built data center facility in Dubai. Equinix will operate this new International Business Exchange (IBX) data center, which has capacity of 44,000 sq ft and approximately 650 cabinets.

"The Middle East continues to strengthen its position as an important business hub and we are seeing increased demand from our customers for data center services across the region. We see Dubai and the UAE as a key business gateway and are excited to open a new data center in the area to help facilitate growth,” remarked Eric Schwartz, president, Equinix EMEA.

“Many companies are looking to expand their operations into and out of the area, and we will be working with du to provide the connectivity and services they require to succeed,” he stated.

Additionally, du has created the recently announced datamena brand, and expects to invest an equivalent amount to further grow the datamena platform and service portfolio over time.

Datamena constitutes a transit zone, which allows international customers to host and distribute content, and to trade data capacity in a cost effective way. Its services will only be available in the data centers in the alliance, said a senior du official.

Du CEO Osman Sultan said the alliance enables customers to expand their digital footprint from a location where some of the fastest-growing markets in the world intersect.

"The introduction of datamena and a carrier-neutral data center will act as a catalyst for the next stage of internet development in the region. This resonates with the UAE’s vision of enhancing its role as a regional business hub and to be one of the best places to do business in the world,” he added.-Reuters and TradeArabia News Service