Cisco on Monday announced that Zain Group, a leading telecom operator in the Middle East, has deployed its routing platforms and WAN automation to bring distributed intelligence and centralized control to its network.

Zain Group, which aims to transform its network to manage data growth, will be benefitting from simplification, scalability and open innovation that drive business results after the deployment of Cisco’s routing platforms and WAN automation.

According to the annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (Cisco VNI), there will be a 12-fold increase in Middle East and Africa mobile data traffic from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 65 percent.

Zain Group serves over 45 million customers across eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

“With the support of Cisco, our network architecture positions us well to drive tangible business outcomes and meet the evolving demands of our customers,” said Henri Kassab, managing director, International, Wholesale and Roaming, Zain Group.

The deployment will result into a more resilient network that delivers high bandwidth, enhanced application intelligence for 5G, and a significantly improved end user experience that defines the network of the future. Cisco’s technology will also help Zain Group optimize network operations and offer differentiated services.

“The capabilities of Cisco’s segment routing, automation and routing engines enable Zain Group to implement a programmable network that allows them to rapidly adapt to future customer needs,” said Ali Amer, managing director, Global Service Provider Sales, Cisco Middle East and Africa.

Zain Group will also gain from simplified operations, programmability, scalability and increased network availability by modernizing their global IP/MPLS architecture.

The Cisco Visual Networking Index (Cisco VNI) forecasts that by 2021, the Middle East and Africa will have 2.4 billion networked devices (up from 1.7 billion in 2016) and 1.4 networked devices per capita, while 75 percent of all networked devices will be mobile-connected in 2021.