NME Innovation Awards 2008 recognises networking elite

The fourth annual NME Innovation Awards 2008, which was held last night in Dubai, brought together the finest of the region's networking community.

The awards ceremony, which recognised the best in network projects, products and individuals from across the Middle East, was held at the Mina A Salam Hotel in Dubai and honoured excellence in networking across fifteen different categories.

Winners included TE Data from Egypt, Inmarsat, McAfee and King Abdul Aziz Endowment Project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

"We all know the Middle East is booming. We've said it for the past three years, but the region is still enjoying a phase of massive growth and development. This economic growth has sparked a parallel revolution in information technology and nowhere is this felt more dramatically than the networking sector. According to some estimates, more than 80% of all IT investments in the Middle East are made in networking and infrastructure related products and solutions," said Steve Marney, master of ceremonies for the Awards.

"The combination of economic growth and technological revolution has resulted in some of the most impressive IT projects anywhere in the world being implemented right here, in the Middle East," Marney added. The prize award of Networking Professional of the Year was picked up by Ronald Franckaert, ICT director at Tourism Development and Investment Company, Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabian Airlines walked away with the Most Influential End-user organisation in the Middle East award.

Other big winners included Juniper Networks, which picked up the Best Networking Vendor Award, and East Meets West (EMW), which took home the Best Networking Integrator trophy. Both of these winners took the prize after breaking ties in their respective categories.

A decisive winner for the Best Datacentre Deployment award proved to be the Dubai International Financial Centre while Emirates Identity Authority walked away with the Best Security Implementation award.

On the vendor side, Panduit picked up the hotly-contested Best Cabling Product Range Award.

Full list of winners

• Best fixed networking product range - Alcatel-Lucent
• Best wireless networking product range - Cisco
• Best cabling product range - Panduit
• Best security product range - McAfee
• Best fixed network implementation - Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority
• Best wireless network implementation - TE Data for Luxor, Egypt
• Best datacentre deployment - Dubai International Financial Centre
• Best real estate implementation - King Abdul Aziz Endowment Project
• Best security implementation - Emirates Identity Authority
• Most innovative use of new technology - Inmarsat
• Network implementation with the best RoI - Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai
• Best networking integrator in the Middle East - EMW
• Best networking vendor in the Middle East - Juniper Networks
• Networking Professional of the year - Ronald Franckaert, ICT director, Tourism Development and Investment Company
• Most influential end-user organisation in the Middle East - Saudi Arabian Airlines