Nasser Bin Khaled boosts multimedia communications with HP Networking

HP announced today that Nasser Bin Khaled (NBK), one of Qatar’s leading family businesses, has selected HP FlexNetwork architecture to replace its network infrastructure. Based on the HP 10500 switch, the new campus network provides NBK with cost-effective multimedia communications across all its sites.

NKB manages the sales and distribution in the Qatari market of notable international brands including Mercedes Benz, Harley Davidson and Michelin. NBK owns other companies in the fields of industry, construction, oil and gas, telecommunications, civil engineering, agriculture, real estate, fashion and hospitality.

“NBK’s business-critical CRM and ERP applications are extremely bandwidth-hungry, and must be always available,” says Waleed Hamad, NBK’s Director of Business Information Technology. “Our legacy network infrastructure was unable to keep pace with the developing needs of NBK and the growth of our operations. HP has provided NBK with a resilient virtualised 10GB network infrastructure which not only delivers the highest levels of performance and availability but has the capacity to support 40GB/100GB in the future.” 

HP FlexNetwork architecture has transformed NBK’s network by cost-effectively delivering increased speed, performance and agility. At the network core, a powerful new HP 10500 campus switch delivers ultra-high resiliency and availability for NBK’s CRM and ERP applications. Its three microsecond latency and 40GB performance support the delivery of media-rich applications and provide NBK with a video-ready network. 

At the distribution layer, robust HP 5800 switches in NBK’s key locations provide the bandwidth necessary to ensure continuous availability for secure, high-speed communications.At the access layer, advanced intelligent HP 5120 switches eliminate loops in the network for maximum reliability.

NBK’s network infrastructure complexity is reduced by HP’s innovative Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) technology, which consolidates the management of multiple switches into a single, easy-to-manage virtual device. HP IRF increases network reliability to ensure that NBK’s business-critical applications and services run without interruption.

For maximum efficiency, the entire network can be centrally managed with HP Intelligent Management Centre (IMC) software. HP IMC eases the workload on NBK’s IT team and offers lower operating expenses by unifying the management of network resources, services and users.

Implemented by HP partner Gulf Business Center, the entire network infrastructure is supported by HP Care Packs providing a four-hour response, next business day fix service to ensure NBK’s business continuity.

“HP has enabled NBK to unleash the full performance, stability and manageability benefits of their virtualised IT network,” says Eyad Shihabi, Managing Director, HP Middle East. “With a single operating system and management platform, HP Networking switches allow NBK to meet their current networking needs and provide the flexibility for future expansion.”