Cisco and Mannai Corporation QPSC set out plans in Doha on 26 October to develop sovereign AI infrastructure in Qatar, building on more than three decades of technology work together in the country, Business News This Week reported.
Key points
- Mannai Technologies – Networking & ELV is the local partner for Cisco’s proposed Qatar infrastructure initiative.
- Cisco’s Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio is designed for customer-controlled sites, including on-premises and air-gapped environments.
- The companies identify government, energy, financial services and healthcare as sectors for the initiative.
Mannai’s role in the Qatar plan
The Qatari company is participating through Mannai Technologies – Networking & ELV, its networking and extra-low voltage systems division. Business News This Week reported that Cisco’s approach combines computing, networking, cybersecurity and infrastructure management capabilities with Mannai’s local work in Qatar.
Mannai’s contribution centres on local engineering, systems integration and deployment, Business News This Week reported. Those activities would put the division between Cisco’s portfolio and the organisations seeking to use it, with Mannai handling the local implementation work described in the announcement.
Cisco and Mannai describe their joint work as a basis for discussions with organisations seeking locally controlled AI infrastructure. The companies present their technology and local capabilities as the basis for those discussions in Qatar.
Abdelilah Nejjari, Guy Diedrich and Hasan Khan appeared for Cisco alongside Sumanta Roy, Mannai Corporation’s Group ICT President, in the announcement published by Business News This Week.
Cisco’s portfolio supports customer-controlled sites
Cisco’s Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio combines networking, security, collaboration and observability technologies, TradeArabia reported. The portfolio is designed for environments controlled by the customer, including equipment installed on the customer’s premises.
It also supports air-gapped deployments, in which systems are isolated from external networks. Cisco presents that design as an option for organisations seeking control over the infrastructure and data used to run essential services.
The portfolio covers several parts of an organisation’s technology estate. Networking connects systems, while the security, collaboration and observability components address other functions of the same customer-controlled environment. Cisco’s Qatar plan places those components alongside computing and infrastructure management capabilities.
For organisations considering AI infrastructure, the proposed arrangement gives Mannai an integration role and Cisco the technology portfolio. The companies describe local control of systems and data as the purpose of bringing those capabilities together in Qatar.
Qatar sectors and Cisco’s Bell agreement
The companies identify government, energy, financial services and healthcare among the sectors for which AI-ready infrastructure could be used in Qatar. Cisco links the initiative to Qatar National Vision 2030, the country’s framework for economic diversification and technological development.
TradeArabia reported that the Qatar proposal is aimed at demand for environments in which organisations retain local control of AI systems. Its account describes Mannai’s engineering and deployment work as the local complement to Cisco’s portfolio.
Cisco has also pursued sovereign AI infrastructure in Canada. Bell and Cisco signed a memorandum of understanding for infrastructure in Canada, AI Affairs previously reported. The Qatar announcement instead describes Cisco and Mannai’s proposed technology and integration approach.
In Qatar, the companies’ stated focus is on customer-controlled deployments across the named sectors. Mannai Technologies – Networking & ELV is the partner Cisco has identified to provide the local engineering, integration and deployment work for that approach.
