Madina Knowledge Economic City (KEC) will soon give rise to a state-of-the-art, next-generation cyber-technology facility that will cater to customers in the Middle East and North Africa region. Under the agreement signed on Sunday at Jeddah Hilton, KEC gave formal authorization to DeepCloud SA, a Saudi Arabian company, to develop, own and operate the DeepCloud Madina Technology Center on a 30,000 sq meters land in KEC. It will be anchored by the region's first carrier and vendor neutral Tier IV Internet Data Center (IDC). It will also be the first of several independently accredited IDCs that DeepCloud will develop in the Kingdom. DeepCloud has partnered with US-based Oracle Corporation which will serve as the design and technology partner for the project. The agreement was sealed by Prince Faisal Bin Turki Al-Faisal, Kenneth H. Close and Christopher P. Franco, directors of DeepCloud and Dr. Sami Baroum and Eng. Tahir Bawazir, chairman and CEO of KEC, respectively. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Dr. Ibrahim Babelli, CEO of the National Industrial Strategy (NIS). Dr. Babelli has worked closely with DeepCloud on this project as it represents a key element of NIS's strategy for building the enabling infrastructure for knowledge and innovation industries. The Tier IV IDC at the DeepCloud Madina Technology Center will serve industries and businesses throughout the Kingdom, the MENA region and beyond that require professionally managed, highly reliable, bandwidth-intensive physical environments within which to operate their mission-critical hardware and applications. The DeepCloud IDC facility will be used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems, and will include redundant systems including backup power supplies, data communications connections, environmental controls, such as air conditioning and fire suppression, and security devices. DeepCloud's IDCs will be critical infrastructure for Saudi Arabia's knowledge economy, and will assist industry and businesses by running the applications that handle their core business and operational data. Data centers are also critical to industry for disaster recovery and business continuity purposes. DeepCloud will be coordinating its programs closely with the National Industrial Strategy, KEC and other key stakeholders in Saudi Arabia to provide the maximum value possible to new entrepreneurs in the Kingdom. Prince Faisal Bin Turki, DeepCloud majority shareholder, said the technology center, expected to be fully operational within the next 18-20 months, targets large international companies. It will be run by some 200 personnel. “DeepCloud's investment at Madina will ultimately reach upwards of SR400 million, and our world-class IDC at the DeepCloud Madina Technology Center will be the first-of-its-kind in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region. Our IDC will position Saudi Arabia as the principal nexus for high technology industries in the entire MENA region, and will make Madina and Saudi Arabia the preferred Disaster Recovery and Cloud Computing centers for the MENA region,” the Prince added. Bawazir said “as part of KEC's mission to be the regional hub for a new generation of knowledge-based industries, we are delighted to have this agreement with DeepCloud to develop the DeepCloud Madina Technology Center bringing high-tech capabilities and services to the benefit of the region and creating future jobs for our young talented Saudis.” Saudi Arabia is located at a “critical juncture” which makes it the best place to locate the center. On top of that, the Kingdom is at the forefront of the move for Arabized Internet. Moreover, there is tremendous interest in the Kingdom's schools and universities toward information and communication technology. The DeepCloud Madina Technology Center at KEC will also offer comprehensive “smart” office space and assistance with Internet business incubation. As part of DeepCloud's commitment to support the National Industrial Strategy and KEC's knowledge-based industries focus, it will provide dedicated space and support for a special DeepCloud Innovation Center. This Innovation Center will provide start-up and early-stage Internet companies with “incubation” assistance that is designed to accelerate new companies' successful development through an array of business support resources. The DeepCloud Innovation Center will be a “one-stop-shop” for entrepreneurial support. This support increases the likelihood that a start-up company will stay in business for the long term - according to a University of Michigan study, historically, approximately 8 percent of incubated companies stay in business. Close said “our IDC, which will be the first carrier and vendor neutral Tier IV facility in the region, will materially assist the Kingdom in achieving one of the top 10 goals of the new National Industrial Strategy. The DeepCloud Madina Technology Center will provide a facility for technology-dependent businesses to co-locate their mission-critical IT equipment and will create a symbiotic environment where Knowledge and Innovation Industries (such as Internet businesses developed by Saudi entrepreneurs) can collaborate and thrive.” Madina Technology Center will be the first of the data centers that DeepCloud plans to set up in other strategic areas in the Kingdom, Close noted. He stressed that the Kingdom's deregulated telecom market spearheaded DeepCloud's interest to establish data centers in the country, adding that KEC's “smart” infrastructure “is the key enabler” to the technology-based projects. “KEC's location and access to modern smart infrastructure, utilities and talented people have been reasons why DeepCloud chose KEC among many options which makes us proud and confident that many other investors in the future will see the natural advantages of being in KEC to develop and grow their business successfully,” Bawazir added.
