Etisalat has again become the only service provider in the Middle East to achieve Sun Microsystems’ elite SunTone certification for Public Internet Operations (its unit offering external hosting and data centre solutions for external customers) as well as IT Services Department (offering the same for Etisalat Internal Departments)
SunTone is Sun's Quality of Service (QoS) initiative, providing industry best practices, processes, and policies to architect, implement, and manage high-quality networked service delivery. Organisations that achieve SunTone accreditation, including managed hosting providers such as AT&T, are internationally recognised for exceeding expectations in service delivery and service management.
To achieve SunTone certification for a second time, Etisalat has invested hundreds of man-hours to train its co-location and managed hosting teams in meeting customer and internal service level expectations and fine-tuning the company’s IT infrastructure. As a result, Etisalat has transformed itself to become the Middle East’s only SunTone-certified provider of core and advanced data centre services.
According to Mr. Ali AlSharhan (EVP/IT), Etisalat: “The SunTone certification certifies our service delivery in areas such as architecture, implementation and management from service delivery environment. Through this, we can assure our customers that the Service Level Guarantees we provide are among the world's best and backed by Sun's independent auditing.”
“The level of expectation around Etisalat’s service delivery has changed fundamentally in the last two years since our initial SunTone certification. Now, our organisation must deliver always-on availability of IT services, guaranteed response times and rapid problem resolution within a framework of traceable requests and proper documentation. The Suntone certification provides a clear level of differentiation for Etisalat in the market by confirming the alignment of our services with stringent guidelines based on industry best practices for overall quality of service,” said Mr. Tareq AlKharji (VP/Network Operation), Etisalat.
“As part of its SunTone accreditation, Etisalat is the only regional managed hosting provider that can maximise its IT efficiency, benchmark and quantify the successful provision of services externally and internally, and document the improved quality of service that it is now providing,” said Marc Heger, Gulf District Manager for Sun Microsystems Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
“Etisalat has possibly one of the more complex computing environments in the region, given both its hosting customers and internal users, and the SunTone program is enabling the company to optimize its production environment — people, processes, and technology.” he added.
About Etisalat
Founded in 1976, Etisalat is the leading telecommunications service provider in the United Arab Emirates. The corporation has made the UAE one of the most connected nations, with more than 5.8 million customers on its GSM network, 1.3 million subscribers to the fixed line network and over 2 million Internet users. The penetration of mobile phones into the market has crossed the 135 percent mark, the highest in the region, and comparable to the highest in the world.
Etisalat, through its international subsidiaries, services over 32 million customers across 14 countries, providing fixed line and mobile telephony, data services, Cable TV and Internet services to personal and business subscribers.
The Middle East magazine has ranked Etisalat first in the United Arab Emirates and fourth in the Middle East among a league table of the top 100 companies, based on its financial performance and capital growth. The corporation was also selected as one of the top 500 International companies based on market capitalisation according to the ‘Financial Times’. It was ranked as the 4th best performing Arab company by ‘Forbes Arabia’ magazine in 2006, which included more than 1600 Arab joint stock companies in various sectors. Arabian Business magazine reported Etisalat as the most admired telecommunications company in the Gulf in 2007.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer[tm]" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com
