NBAD

NBAD (National Bank Abu Dhabi) prides itself on being the leading bank in the Middle East and one of the safest banks in the world. Deeply rooted in the Arab region and yet intricately connected to the global markets, NBAD always aims to raise the bar and continue its international expansion. In order to support the Bank’s local and global business, a state-of-the-art data centre was required to facilitate its corporate IT operations. Referred to as the ‘Barajeel Project’, and in the Kizad Industrial Zone, the data centre was integral to the bank’s continued growth. Linesight was engaged in the early pre-contract stage, given the significant in-house expertise and resources held in the high-tech industrial sector.

The Barajeel project to continue growth 

From an early stage, our team consulted closely with our client on a continuous basis to ascertain and manage the expectations and key outcomes, in order to ensure efficient programme delivery. Given the challenging procurement process surrounding the project, we played a fundamental role in devising a unique procurement strategy to overcome this, and the strategy adopted offered unrivalled value for money, coming in under budget.  

An admin building was designed over two storeys to support operations, while two enclosure buildings house both IT equipment and support infrastructure. Each two-storey enclosure is designed with electrical and mechanical equipment on the ground floor and will accommodate 16 MDC units with IT equipment on the first floor providing space for 160 racks and will provide 1.28 MW of critical power as directed by NBAD. 

Pioneering modular space in the Middle East 

• Our team’s considerable data centre expertise was vital in this project, given its scale and prominence
• An approach using this modular space had never been used in the Middle East prior to this, but this technological advancement allows for more capacity and continued expansion in line with the NBAD's planned trajectory