New Cisco Platform Set to Boost Middle East Telecom Operators' Efficiency and Innovation Prospects

Cisco Evolved Services Platform Enables Service Providers to Transform Networks, Reduce OPEX and Enhance Service Agility

Middle East and Africa Set to Post World’s Fastest Growth Rates for Mobile Data and Cloud Traffic by 2017, Straining Inefficient Existing Network Architectures

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – 16 March 2014 – Cisco today announced the launch of the Cisco Evolved Services Platform (ESP), unlocking a host of new efficiency and innovation opportunities for telecom operators across the Middle East.

Cisco ESP – an expansion of Cisco’s virtualization offerings and a key element of the Cisco Open Network Environment (ONE) strategy – enables service providers to rapidly enhance network management, operating expenses, and service agility. It also creates significant potential to drive new innovations in the delivery of value-added, cloud-based services and applications.

The move comes as the Middle East continues to experience a huge spike in the online connections of people, devices, machines and sensors in what is known as the Internet of Everything (IoE).

According to Cisco predictions, the Middle East and Africa region is set to post the world’s fastest growth rates in mobile data traffic, increasing 14-fold to 1.49 exabytes per month in 2018, and cloud traffic, growing from 17 exabytes in 2012 to 157 exabytes in 2017.

“The Middle East’s existing network architectures are like an overcrowded airport, which do not prioritize traffic and are easily overwhelmed by sudden surges in network activity, like live-streaming video at events or uploading photos at a concert,” said Fady Younes, Regional Sales Manager and Client Director, Cisco.

“Instead of having to rebuild the network, service providers can use cost-effective solutions to effectively manage the situation to deliver seamless network access for each user. Cisco ESP operates like an air traffic controller, re-routing network traffic to avoid congestion, and fast-tracking network connections for high-priority applications.”

Cisco ESP Enables Self-Adapting Networks

The Cisco ESP solution encompasses a fully-integrated and dynamic strategy that enables conversation between the layers of a network’s architecture. As a result, self-adapting networks automatically manage network activity based on user and application demands.

An open-standard cloud-based platform, Cisco ESP can be deployed and scaled quickly and easily across multiple vendors. A comprehensive unified virtualization and orchestration software platform, Cisco ESP works with the Cisco Evolved Programmable Network to create, automate, and provision services in real-time by working across computing, storage, and network functions.

“Cisco ESP enables service providers to quickly deliver innovative new services, increase revenues by offering consistent and differentiated experiences, and enhance operational expenses by optimizing existing network infrastructures,” said Younes.

Following several years of engineering development, Cisco ESP is centered on the three main tenets of the Cisco service provider virtualization strategy: the network is increasingly virtualized and virtualization is increasingly networked; virtualization needs to be an integrated extension of the physical infrastructure; and virtualization should be placed throughout the whole architecture.

Cisco ESP launches with two deployment models. Cisco Videoscape Cloud DVR Solution, which enables users to record and access television shows via the cloud, and Cisco Virtualized Mobile Internet, a mobile service that enables businesses to provide sponsored data to customers.

Continuing its customer-centric approach, Cisco ESP can be purchased in four ways. These include virtual functions (individual virtual functions may be purchased independently as a separate module and run in a network over general computing), orchestration (a “networked” or “service chaining” approach  to deliver expanded functionality and address even wider market opportunities), pod (virtualized service functions combined with orchestration and a hardware package), and as-a-service (a complete service offer that includes virtualized service functions combined with orchestration and delivered through a hosted or third-party cloud for faster time-to-market, using a pay-as-you-go model).