Gulf Bridge International (GBI) extends partnership with Equinix

Since 2015, GBI has benefitted greatly from connections in key European Equinix data centre locations in both Amsterdam and Frankfurt and so GBI’s new presence at Equinix MC1 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) in Muscat will build on this success, enhancing both its IP Transit and Cloud Connect products and providing customers with greater connectivity throughout the Middle East and onwards.  

Equinix MC1 IBX® is a carrier-neutral hub in Oman and one of the largest in the region, where carriers, cloud providers and content providers can colocate critical IT infrastructure. It serves as a regional interconnection hub providing ultra-low latency connection points between key global business markets. For GBI this means improved quality of its IP Transit and Cloud Connect products.

GBI IP Transit already covers the entire GCC (Gulf Corporation Council) and has equal or lower average hop count than other Tier 1s. Moreover, GBI’s Cloud Connect offering provides a fully protected premium to GCC and can support network topology seamlessly, resulting in an unbeatable low latency private access to the cloud. The connection to Equinix MC1 will improve performance further, supporting digital transformation in the Middle Eastern enterprise market.

Brendan Press, CCO of GBI, comments: “Recent Equinix research shows almost two thirds (60%) of digital leaders in the UAE have accelerated their digital transformation plans, all of which has to be underpinned by reliable and trusted connectivity. As such, GBI’s presence at the Equinix MC1 datacentre will be highly valuable. It’s important to be building on our relationship so we can offer customers the lowest latency access to secure cloud services in the region; it will bolster our IP Transit and Cloud Connect products to serve customer’s digital transformation needs.”.

Cengiz Oztelcan, CEO of GBI adds: “GBI has been connected to Equinix datacentres in Amsterdam and Frankfurt since 2015 and we’re excited to be taking our partnership to the next level. Together we are fully committed to serving our Gulf and Middle Eastern customers and the MC1 datacentre will help the region thrive. Customers are demanding more content and a greater experience as the next wave of digital transformation gathers momentum, and we are fully prepared for this shift. We are entering a highly exciting era of connectivity and it’s amazing to be at the forefront of this.”

Kamel Al-Tawil, Managing Director for Middle East and North Africa at Equinix, said: “Putting digital infrastructure at the center of the business strategy requires the support of a dynamic digital infrastructure. Businesses need a simple way to bring together digital infrastructure that encompasses a choice of multiple providers, distributed geographies and hybrid multicloud architectures. These are the areas Equinix has been devoted to, and we strive to meet businesses’ evolving needs.”