* New agreement brings multiple benefits - from reduced capital expenditure to institutional resilience

The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) and Ooredoo Qatar have signed an agreement to expand the Government Data Centre (GDC).
The new GDC, also known as GDC2, will allow various government entities to host their mission-critical IT and network infrastructure in Ooredoo’s QDC5 purpose-built secure Tier III Data Centre facility in Qatar, according to a press statement by Ooredoo.
Connected to the Government Network (GN), GDC2 provides hosting as well as basic and advanced monitoring services to hosted government entities. This will further enhance the ability of the public sector as a whole to acquire data centre capacity, without the need for additional capital expenditure.
For government entities, GDC2 brings multiple benefits. These include the flexibility to activate additional managed services quickly, high-speed connectivity to the official Government Network, compliance with National Information Assurance standards, high availability hosting and 24/7 support, provided by a dedicated team of Ooredoo experts, the statement notes.
GDC2 provides highly-resilient carrier-grade facilities with enterprise-class power, space and security, operated by a team of skilled staff. Thanks to the innovative modular approach that Ooredoo Qatar has developed, government entities with any size of operational footprint in Qatar can take full advantage of Ooredoo’s flexibility and adaptability while ensuring security, reliability and extensibility within a managed, on-demand service. GDC2 can be used as the primary data centre or as a disaster recovery site by government organisations.
Ooredoo chief business officer Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad al-Thani said, “This agreement provides further evidence of the emergence of Ooredoo as a trusted data centre service provider for government entities, giving them access to a host of cloud, infrastructure and managed services without incurring major capital expenditure. We’re proud to be chosen by the Ministry of Transport and Communications for such a crucial aspect of its operations, and look forward to working together.”
On the occasion, MoTC’s acting assistant undersecretary of Government Information Technology Affairs Mashael Ali al-Hammadi said: “We are pleased to have signed this agreement with Ooredoo Qatar as part of MoTC’s keenness to extend the capabilities of the Government Data Centre by engaging with all service providers in Qatar to ensure resilience and high availability of the service as well as to enable all government entities and organisations to broaden their data centres’ footprints without the need for investing in capex/opex logistics and to shorten the ‘time to service’ as much as possible.”
Officially launched in 2006, Ooredoo Qatar Data Centre was the first facility in Qatar to offer businesses a full suite of enterprise services. It has since evolved into a critical technology asset as part of Qatar’s drive to become a truly smart nation, supporting a wave of breakthrough technologies.
Ooredoo Qatar Data Centre facilities supply total control of and security for customers’ digital and data assets, having been designed in compliance with Tier-3 standards. These facilities provide local and regional organisations with a full range of services, including hosting and co-location and ICT managed services.
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