Category: cisco equipment

The TDME business was formed from the acquisition of Tech Data Middle East more than two years ago, and as Ali Baghdadi, President and CEO at Aptec explains, the time has come for the brand to be revamped.

“When we acquired Tech Data we chose a name which would give us the freedom of branding, but at the same time was close to Tech Data, so TDME stood for both TD Middle East and Track Distribution Middle East,” he points out. “Now that Tech Data has gone, people know TDME, so we have just rebranded TDME into Track Distribution. Track is also going to get outside the boundaries of the Middle East, so the change is in preparation for that.”

Baghdadi explains that Track will function as a “Cisco technology-centric” outfit that also provides solutions from complementary vendors such as Linksys, APC and McAfee.

The rebranding is being accompanied by a concerted push into the services market, with Aptec building on the foundations of its independent services business, ATS. “We have created within ATS a Cisco services group offering implementation, network audit services, project management and design to resellers which do not wish to invest in manpower,” explains Baghdadi.

Track has access to a team of more than 30 certified engineers with expertise in Cisco installation and configuration. Resellers will be able to purchase the support and consultancy services from the company, and even market them as their own resources when completing a customer project if they wish.

In addition to the services element, Track is also pioneering an ‘ISV club’, which seeks to facilitate relationships between local and global software developers on behalf of Cisco.

Aptec remains one of the most established technology distributors in the Middle East. The company was officially registered 30 years ago this month and next year it will celebrate an impressive three decades in business.

The products on display appear under Cisco’s Linksys brand and three products in particular are being focused on: the WET610N wireless bridge, the NMH410 media hub and the WAG320N dual band wireless gateway.

“These products will help end users consume their media,” says Amanulla Khan, Regional Manager MEA of Cisco’s Consumer Business Group. “The NMH40 media hub makes it very easy for consumers to access their content wirelessly across their homes. Our media hub is far different from regular NAS devices which traditionally come from enterprise backgrounds, which makes those devices hard to configure. Our devices are easy to configure, we’ve taken the complexity out,” explains Khan.

The NMH410 is capable of running three HD streams simultaneously and the company says this is thanks to its 5GHz dual band wireless-N design. This hub features a front-mounted LCD, packs a memory card reader and can be attached to a hard disk.

Khan is convinced that WiFi products sell themselves, saying, “People that adopt a simple WiFi network to use the internet on their laptops automatically realise there are greater possibilities with this technology. The bandwidth demands start low with basic internet sharing and then increase as users start accessing movies, music and other types of content over their networks.

“Wireless networks enable a great user experience, allowing consumers to interconnect their Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 consoles, digital photo frames and media hubs,” says Khan.

When pressed about Linksys’ power-line networking hardware, Khan concludes, “We offer a full range of power-line networking hardware, but we believe it compliments WiFi. In big houses where range might be an issue, a power-line solution can help bridge the gap.”

The Cisco Technology Developer Program is intended to develop integrated solutions using Cisco solutions and third party hardware and software.

As a member of the program, Leviton shares Cisco’s strong commitment to customer service and satisfaction, and is required to undergo interoperability testing based on criteria set forth by Cisco. With Cisco Technology Developer Program member offerings such as Leviton Fiber Connect’s High Density Data Centre Port Replicated Patch Panel Series, F8xLx-576 and interconnect infrastructure, customers can more quickly deploy a broad range of Cisco compatible business applications to enhance the capabilities, performance, and management of their network.

Leviton Fiber Connect’s High Density Data Centre Port Replicated Patch Panel Series, F8xLx-576 and interconnect components have also completed interoperability testing with Cisco solutions.

Cisco has announced its CRS-3 Carrier Routing System (CRS) that the company says “is designed to transform the broadband communication and entertainment industry” owing to it offering a capacity of up to 322 Terabits per second.

The CRS-3’s 322 tbps of capacity more than triples the 92 tbps capacity of the Cisco CRS-1 and represents more than 12 times the capacity of any other core router in the industry.

With this kind of capacity, Cisco says that the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress can be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China can make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created can be streamed in less than four minutes.

The company has invested US $1.6 billion in the Cisco CRS family, and the CRS-3, which is currently in field trials, will have its pricing set at US $90,000. The CRS-3 is also said to offer up to 60 percent savings on power consumption compared to competitive platforms and Cisco CRS-1 customers will be able to upgrade to CRS-3 with the aid of Cisco Services.

Keith Cambron, president and CEO, AT&T Labs, says, “We are entering the next stage of global communication and entertainment services and applications, which requires a new set of advanced Internet networking technologies. AT&T’s network handled 40 percent more traffic in 2009 than it did in the previous year, and we continue to see this growth in 2010. Having leading edge experience in managing the largest global data network, we are pleased to continue our close working relationship with Cisco and its groundbreaking Cisco CRS-3 platform.”

Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Business, Cisco, has said, “The next generation Internet is upon us and we are confident that the Cisco CRS-3 will play a crucial role as service providers like AT&T deliver an exciting, new array of video, mobile, data center and cloud services. The Cisco CRS-3 is well positioned to carry on the tradition of the Cisco CRS-1, become the flagship router of the future and serves as the foundation for the world’s most intelligent and advanced broadband networks.”