UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s (TRA) has picked Cisco’s network infrastructure to power the Electronic Federal Network (FedNet) which will host the government’s Smart Cloud and connect all federal entities.

This project was awarded to Cisco through two services providers, a statement said.

FedNet is a secured government platform that will offer secured connectivity and shared services to more than 42 federal government entities in the UAE. It will be an integral component of the wider UAE Mobile Government Initiative, which seeks to create the necessary national infrastructure to enable the provision of all government services via mobile platforms.

The FedNet platform is rightly set to offer them the agility and the speed that private enterprises enjoy from the public clouds, without compromising the Federal Government’s security policies.

Cisco will also build a Network Operations Center and a Cloud Command Center to operate the FedNet infrastructure. Once implemented, FedNet will provide secured communication services such as Government-to-Government (G2G), secured internet, e-mail, voice and video services. FedNet will be the very first cloud platform to offer IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) to Federal Government entities.

The Cisco solution will comprise two parts:

o    The FedNet Network:  A secure unified network IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network that will connect all the UAE Federal Entities.

o    The FedNet Shared Services: A shared government platform that will provide the services to the entities connected to FedNet MPLS.

Cisco partnered with local service providers to build this secured shared government platform for TRA by taking an end to end system integration responsibility to design, procure, implement and operate an integrated solution that includes a range of technology innovations and architectures such as Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), Cisco Unified Computing Solutions (UCS), and Hosted Collaboration Solutions (HCS).

Saeed Belhoul, director of e-Government Operations Department at TRA, said: “The government of the UAE is focused on digitization and the FedNet project embodies this. We chose Cisco’s network infrastructure because its technology solutions will enable UAE Government entities to securely and effectively collaborate and enhance levels of service delivery. Cisco’s expertise will also enable us to utilize the best of modern technological advancements to serve the UAE citizens, residents and visitors.”

Rabih Dabboussi, managing director, Cisco, UAE, said: “Cisco applauds the way the UAE Government has holistically embraced its digital vision with government and citizen services are already being revolutionized, putting them at the forefront of innovation and driving the initiatives to support momentous technological change. Countries, cities, industries and businesses in the Middle East must become digital to capitalize on the unprecedented opportunity brought about by the next wave of the Internet, the Internet of Everything (IoE) and the UAE Government is making massive strides to ensure this.”

“We are proud and honoured to have been selected by the TRA as its network infrastructure provider for FedNet. As we enter the era of the IoE where more people, process, data, and things will make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before, enhancing and supporting the technology offerings of forward looking entities like the UAE Government is one of Cisco’s foremost goals,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service