Dubai Airport Free Zone hosts disaster recovery site at eHosting DataFort’s Tier-3 Data Centre

eHosting DataFort (eHDF), the region’s leading managed IT and advisory services provider and a member of TECOM Investments’ Technology Cluster, today announced the Dubai Airport Free Zone (DAFZ) has invested in a disaster recovery (DR) site at itsTier-3 data centrefacility.

DAFZ is an established free zone with over 1,450 business partners. DAFZ was ranked number 1 in the region and number 2 in the world by the premier Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Magazine of Financial Times Ltd.Prior to the implementation, DAFZ did not have an off-site disaster recovery solution in place,which put its data to risk during amajor disaster.

DAFZ’s partnership with eHDF was driven by the need to implement a business continuity plan in the event of a major disaster. As part of the solution, eHDF provided DAFZ with a DR hosting environment at itssecure data centre. In addition, a replication solution from eHDF’s partner Double-Take ensures real time replication from the production to the DR site hosted at eHDF’sdata centres. The DR sitehosts an exact replica of critical applications, and in case of any major disaster, there would be a seamless failover to the DR site.

Part of a long-term plan based on a government mandate, the installation of the DR site ensures that the business functions smoothly without any interruption.In addition, 24/7 monitoring and managed security services help identify potential threats and diagnose root problems for quick recovery to provide a resilient business continuity framework.

Yasser Zeineldin, CEO at eHosting DataFort, said: “DAFZ’s core priority was to put in place a robust business continuity plan.  At eHDF, we have successfully worked with many government entities and leading commercial organizations to address their business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Our breadth of solutions and local expertise enabled usto successfully address DAFZ’s requirements.

“Due to the real time replication of data, the solution provided by eHDFensuresminimal down-time in case of a disaster and offersDAFZ decision makers with assured access to all their data. Such continued access is a critical component for effective crisis management. It is worth noting that the solution was developed without any additional capital investment on behalf of DAFZ.”

The ability of eHDF to offer solutions that do not require capital investments from customersacts as a key enabler for organizations that have realized the need for a business continuity or disaster recovery plan, but might have delayed the decision due to absence of approved capital budget.

Buthaina Bin Fahad, Director, Information and Communication Technology, DAFZ, said: “eHDFprovided us the perfect disaster recovery solutionwith the high quality standards maintained at the data centreand comprehensive up-to-date protectionand monitoring capabilities that assure maximum protection of mission-critical sensitive data.

“One of the many criteria for thedisaster recovery site was the location, as wellas the accessibility to both physical as wellas network connectivity from the live site. With this implementation, DAFZ is now capableof protecting the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value-creating activities.”

eHosting DataFort has established itself as a market leader in the field of hosting and managed IT serviceswith its world-class data centres, resilient and scalable infrastructure and round-the-clock managed operations. The company has been recognized for ‘Innovative use of New Technology’ in 2009, and‘Best Colocation Facility’ in 2010. It was also awarded the region’s ‘Best Managed Service Provider of the Year’ in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.