etisalat by e& standardises on Red Hat

DUBAI: Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, has announced that etisalat by e& — telecom arm of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group) — has chosen to standardise on Red Hat technologies across its network and IT at cloud scale.

etisalat by e& is modernising its infrastructure and systems onto Red Hat platforms, including Red Hat OpenShift – the industry’s leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Red Hat is also providing enhanced solution support and training to help etisalat by e& to upskill its staff to take advantage of modern and emerging technologies and workflows including DevOps, containers, automation and AI.

etisalat by e&’s goal is to be the leader in providing next-generation digital services for people and homes, while catalysing large scale digital transformation for organisations and societies. In support of delivering next-generation networks, operational efficiency and excellence in customer experience, etisalat by e& has trusted in Red Hat’s open source software for more than a decade as a foundation for its datacentres and its telco cloud.

etisalat by e& is adopting a horizontal platform with Red Hat to set itself up for continued rapid expansion of digital products and services. A driving force for this collaboration is etisalat by e&’s hybrid cloud strategy, which demands the flexibility and freedom to scale workloads across different public and private cloud environments. Red Hat platforms are built for the hybrid cloud and provide:

• Greater consistency, enhanced security and easier repeatability of how applications are developed, run and managed on any underlying environment whether public cloud, on-premise, hybrid cloud or edge architecture.
• Workflow automation, quality assurance and lifecycle management, so etisalat by e& teams can focus on innovation over infrastructure.
• Freedom of choice when building on Red Hat platforms thanks to certified interoperability and integration with a wide range of hardware and software.

etisalat by e& is working with Red Hat to take advantage of cloud-native architectures and processes and to improve efficiency of operations. With Red Hat’s experience and expertise in application modernisation, etisalat by e& can re-platform existing workloads onto a modern cloud platform based on Kubernetes, break monolithic applications into micro-services and adopt new ways of working, like DevOps and CI/CD to boost software delivery times.

etisalat by e& is also looking to streamline business and IT processes with a holistic approach to automation. With Red Hat Consulting and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, etisalat by e& is laying the ground for automated infrastructure with a stronger security footprint that crosses organisational boundaries. Red Hat supports a declarative GitOps software-based approach to automation that can reduce the burden of repetitive, manual tasks on etisalat by e& teams. This promotes faster decision-making, improved control and compliance, and process efficiencies that lead to cost reductions. As well as better managing its own increasing network and IT complexity at scale, having a single, more consistent platform enables etisalat by e& to apply automation at the business application level to improve how it delivers its enterprise offering.

Darrell Jordan-Smith, senior vice president, Telco, Media & Entertainment and Edge, Red Hat, said: “Emerging technologies like AI, edge computing and advanced software-defined architecture are fuelling the evolution of telecom networks and digital services. etisalat by e& is thinking ahead and equipping itself to take advantage of the dynamic cloud landscape by making sure it has the right foundation in place. This organisation-wide framework for tapping Red Hat’s latest solutions helps position etisalat by e& to better meet its ambitions as a digital pioneer.”

Khalid Murshed, chief technology and information officer, etisalat by e&, said: “At etisalat by e&, we put customer experience at the forefront of everything we do, taking pride in empowering people and the larger community. Red Hat is a strategic partner enabling us to be agile and dynamic to thrive in a multi-cloud future. By giving our teams ongoing access to Red Hat platforms for application development, automation and creative collaboration, we will be able to innovate faster, delivering tangible value to customers in line with our culture and business goals.”