Cisco joins the smart city drive in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar - March 20, 2014 - PRLog -- Cisco has announced its partnership as Diamond Sponsors of the Arab Future Cities Summit to be held in Doha on 7^th and 8^th April, 2014. Using this platform, Cisco will share its vision for creating a sustainable smart and connected city.

Cisco believes that the principles of openness that have made the Internet a thriving ecosystem over the past 20 years can be applied to create and grow the networked platform for connecting people with products, services and information. This same network can also provide a means for cities to manage services, provide citywide information, learn more about how their citizens’ use managed services and provide business opportunities as well.

Now in its third year, the smart cities conference will take place under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Abdul Rahman Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Minister for Municipality and Urban Planning, State of Qatar. The event will attract over 350 top industry stakeholders from around the region and international experts to discuss ‘Smart City’ trends and showcase sustainable solutions to achieve the $120 billion worth of ambitious projects in preparation for Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022.

Qatar’s vision is not limited to the World Cup but goes beyond with its latest national vision to attract 7 million tourists by 2030. Moreover, the gas rich country recently announced 250 major projects primarily in infrastructure, roads and transport, housing and industrial cities with an aim to boost its GDP growth. However, connecting citizens with the growing infrastructure remains a major challenge within the country.

Cisco is currently involved in over 90 Smart and Connected Community (S+CC) projects worldwide, all of which feature an open-architecture platform that enables Cisco, its partners and customers to create and deploy new smart services and applications.

Talking more about Cisco’s well established credentials in this area, Mohammad Hammoudi, General Manager for Cisco in Qatar commented; “The main challenge that most cities face today and into the future is to leverage the network as the foundation for managed city and business services. This foundation layer will then incorporate all manner of mobility, security, cloud computing, virtualization, collaboration and video—and other evolving technologies—and rely on and accommodate a diversity of cross-functional, open-architecture applications that package and distribute information and services,”

“The fiber optic networks, high-speed wireless Internet and sensors will mean a continuous flow of improvements - in everything from education, healthcare and transport to utilities and general security. Cisco’s reputation is already well established in these technologies, standards and experience in having supported the development and growth of the Internet. The Internet of Everything, which Cisco defines as bringing together people, process, data, and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before, will take this revolutionary achievement to the next level,” Hammoudi concludes.

With a focus on knowledge sharing and networking, the Summit will showcase best practice strategies and opportunities in the pipeline for city development through presentations, panel discussion and roundtable sessions integrating citizens, systems and services. Connecting government authorities, developers, urban planners, investors, academics, and cutting-edge technologists, this event gives direction to sustainable city development across the MENA region and is a must-attend for key stakeholders committed to creating smarter cities.

www.arabfuturecities.com