Avnet, Inc. : Avnet Technology Solutions Use Oracle Cloud Technology in One of the First MENA Demo Centres

New Avnet facility in Dubai is one of the first to demonstrate the Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Platforms for business partners in the Middle East and North Africa region

, the global IT solutions distribution leader and operating group of ), has launched a proof-of-concept demonstration facility in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for Oracle's Engineered Systems, including the Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. The facility will help Avnet's business partners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region address the business and IT challenges of their end-user customers.

The demonstration centre is one of the first in the MENA region. The facility works as a point of reference for companies that would like to understand the potential of Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud engineered systems. It will enable companies to experience the use of Oracle technologies by creating proof of concept designs and performance benchmarks based on the Oracle Exadata Database Machine or Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, a leading foundation for Cloud, to transform business requirements into a proven IT solution within an optimized, agile and risk mitigated environment.

Hani Barakat, senior director Oracle business MENA, Avnet Technology Solutions, said, "Avnet Technology Solutions is dedicated to accelerating the success of our business partners and suppliers by investing in long-term, profitable, shared growth opportunities. This new facility demonstrates our commitment to providing Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) partners with the tools and resources they need to increase sales opportunities and provide additional value to their end customers. It also reflects the strength of our relationship and the confidence Oracle has in Avnet to drive market expansion for Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud platforms in the MENA region."

Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Vice President, Oracle Middle East & Africa, commented, "Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud are prime examples of Oracle's engineered software and hardware solutions, which are changing the game in the IT industry in the MENA region. Businesses adopting Oracle cloud computing solutions have already started to see a reduction in costs and increase in productivity due to optimization of resources, savings in maintenance and licenses costs, and most importantly agility in responding to business requirements with scalability and growth."

"We have chosen to work with Avnet to sell Oracle Exadata and Exalogic, due to their excellent capabilities, execution and expertise, and thanks to their investment, OPN partners can now benefit too," added Al Thehaiban.

Avnet is one of the only value-added distributors in the region to host such a facility. The technology and demonstration centre is fully equipped with a team that has the right skills, experience and expertise to service the requirements of partners and end-users on Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud platforms.

Oracle Exadata
The Oracle Exadata Database Machine is the only database machine that provides extreme performance for both data warehousing and online transaction processing (OLTP) applications, making it an ideal platform for consolidating onto grids or private clouds. It is a complete package of servers, storage, networking, and software that is massively scalable, secure, and redundant. With Oracle Exadata Database Machine, customers can reduce IT costs through consolidation, manage more data on multiple compression tiers, improve performance of all applications, and make better business decisions in real time.

Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud
Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud is an integrated hardware and software engineered system which has been designed, tested and optimized by Oracle to run Java-based applications, Oracle Applications, 3rd party applications (Oracle Solaris and Oracle Linux compatible) and re-hosted mainframe applications with extreme performance. The machine offers a complete cloud application infrastructure, for standardizing and consolidating the broadest possible range of enterprise application types and Java and non-Java workloads, with the ultimate objective of satisfying the most demanding requirements in terms of service levels.

About Oracle PartnerNetwork
Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized is the latest version of Oracle's partner program that provides partners with tools to better develop, sell and implement Oracle solutions. OPN Specialized offers resources to train and support specialized knowledge of Oracle products and solutions and has evolved to recognize Oracle's growing product portfolio, partner base and business opportunity. Key to the latest enhancements to OPN is the ability for partners to differentiate through Specializations. Specializations are achieved through competency development, business results, expertise and proven success. To find out more visit .

About Avnet Technology Solutions
As a global IT solutions distributor, Avnet Technology Solutions collaborates with its customers and suppliers to create and deliver services, software and hardware solutions that address the business needs of their end-user customers locally and around the world. For fiscal year 2011, the group served customers and suppliers in more than 70 countries and generated US $11.5 billion in annual revenue. Avnet Technology Solutions (www.ats.avnet.com) is an operating group of Avnet, Inc. Visit: .

About Avnet
Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology serving customers in more than 70 countries worldwide. Avnet accelerates its partners' success by connecting the world's leading technology suppliers with a broad base of customers around the world by providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended July 2, 2011, Avnet generated revenue of $26.5 billion. For more information, visit .

Media Contact:

Martina Kirchner, Marketing
Avnet Technology Solutions Middle East & Africa
Dubai, UAE
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