Dubai Economy has become the first customer of ‘Dubai Pulse’ initiative, launched by Smart Dubai Office in partnership with du to offer virtual solutions to cater to web, application, database and shared services on the Smart City platform.

According to their partnership signed alongside the GITEX Technology Week 2017, du will be the provider of VMware and OpenStack technologies for all of Dubai Economy’s virtual machines. Furthermore, du will provide the supported software and database, storage, memory and backup, together with Managed Services along with service desk support, including operating systems, databases, storage and backup operations. Moreover, du has proposed a comprehensive disaster recovery plan to ensure business continuity throughout the Dubai Pulse initiative.

"Smart Dubai works together with our partners in both the government and private sectors to implement an ambitious roadmap that affects all components of the city: government, companies, society, individuals, resources and infrastructure," said Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director-General of the Smart Dubai Office (SDO). "To that precise end, we launched our ‘Dubai Pulse’ initiative along with our partners at du to act as the backbone of Dubai’s smart transformation. The platform publishes up-to-date information about various metrics related to the city in order to facilitate decision-making for everyone from high-ranking officials to employees."

Dr Aisha added: "As a dedicated government department that offers a range of e-services of their own, Dubai Economy is an ideal partner for the ‘DubaiNow’ platform, and we are delighted to have them break ground on this initiative and be the first to join. We urge other government entities to follow suit and help us with our end goal is to make Dubai the happiest and smartest city in the world, echoing the inspiring and forward-thinking vision of the UAE leadership in the run-up to the UAE Centennial 2071, as well as with the Dubai 10X initiative."

Sami Al Qamzi, Director-General of Dubai Economy, commented: "We are delighted to be the first government entity to join the ‘Dubai Pulse’ platform in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Dubai is a leader in providing innovative services to the resident business community and the economic sector. The cloud platform has its unique advantages, particularly with respect to process streamlining, flexibility, cost and carbon footprint. Adopting this new technology to deliver our services will enable us to focus more on the changes needed to achieve the goal of sustainable economic development of Dubai."

Al Qamzi noted that the cloud platform is accelerating technical procedures from 10-15 seconds earlier to less than three seconds now. Remote infrastructure helps save energy and space as well. "The partnership will result in saving the operational cost of the systems in Dubai Economy and also enable round the clock service delivery while maintaining the highest standards in data and information systems security and confidentiality. Dubai Economy aspires to remain a partner in Smart Dubai projects such as the Open Data Initiative and Block Chain."

Osman sultan, CEO of du, said: " Through this agreement, we will provide the infrastructure for the platform to excel, by offering all the services and solutions required by our customer – Dubai Economy. Working together, we will enhance the lives of the people of the UAE through this Smart platform and achieve the Smart Dubai’s vision of ‘converting Dubai into the happiest city on Earth."