RIYADH: APW Systems MEA is bringing more resources into Saudi Arabia to grow the company’s presence in the Gulf’s largest market.
Based in Sharjah, APW Systems MEA (FZC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s APW President Systems. The company manufactures a diverse range of standard and customized enclosure solutions for IT/networking, telecom, business and industrial electronics sectors.
The word “enclosures” includes cabinets and racks or frames that are used to hold digital equipment such as servers, switches and LCD displays. People are perhaps most familiar with the enclosures that house equipment in massive data centers, but actually even many small companies now operate their own networks and ideally they would use an enclosure to hold all the equipment related to network operations.
According to Shahnawaz Khan, business development manager in Saudi Arabia for APW Systems MEA, there isn’t much awareness of the importance of enclosures in protecting expensive digital equipment.
“In Saudi Arabia, enclosures are an afterthought for most companies,” Khan said. “They really aren’t aware of the importance of installing digital equipment in the right kind of enclosure — and there are many different ones. We see that often companies just select the cheapest enclosure available — even though it doesn’t fit the requirements. For example, there are certain load or weight ratings on the cabinets which are suitable for specific types of equipment, but customers are unaware of the importance of such a rating.” Khan pointed out that the severe weather this summer, which included sandstorms, high humidity and extreme temperatures, reinforces the requirement for adequate enclosures if companies hope to achieve an ideal lifespan from digital equipment.
In some climates it might be possible to operate a server by just sitting it on a shelf. In the Kingdom, leaving a server on a shelf would set off an ugly contest to see if the heat from poor air circulation would blow it up or if the equipment would suck in so much dust that its components would malfunction under a blanket of insulating particles.
“Companies need to be very serious about enclosures and should order enclosures at the same time they order servers or other equipment. Networking equipment can cost thousands of dollars. Ideally, the enclosures should be set up and ready when the digital equipment arrives on site. In this way the equipment goes directly from cartons into cabinets where it is protected from dust and breakage and can receive proper power and cooling,” Khan advised.
APW Systems MEA has been present in Saudi Arabia ever since it began a distribution partnership with OnLine Distribution Ltd. now Westcon Middle East. While bringing in more direct resources to grow the market, APW Systems MEA plans to continue using their master distributor to support local resellers who will then serve Saudi clients. “Our goal is to raise our revenue to $2 million in the Kingdom in the first half of the year following my appointment,” said Khan. “Our plan is to increase our reach in terms of adding a variety of new accounts as well as to improve the level of local support and service. My personal goal is to increase the awareness of customers and to educate them on the proper deployment of enclosures as well as Datacenter management practices.”
