Key players in the regional data centre industry will be honoured for the first time at the upcoming 'Data Centre Strategies Middle East 2010,' conference to be held in Abu Dhabi. Nominations for the award close on May 10.

Data Centre Strategies Middle East, which is hosting the 'Awards for the Data Center' has invited submissions in 11 categories.

These include Best New Entrant in ME Data Centre; Best Co-location (ME Facility); Best Data Centre (ME region); Best ME Green Initiative award; Best New Cloud Services ME region award; Best Sustainable Data Centre Design (ME region); Best Managed Services Provider (ME region); Best Disaster Recovery Provider ME 2010; Middle East CTO Award for Innovation in Data Centres; Judges’ Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Data Centre Sector Award (CEO Award), and Special Award for Innovation and Education in the Data Centre Sector ME 2010.

The online entry form is available at www.datacentres.com/me. The final shortlist and award winners will be announced at the close of the conference on May 25, said the organisers.

These awards will provide companies, engaged in the data centre industry, with widespread recognition and outstanding marketing differentiation, said Philip Low, managing director at BroadGroup, organisers of Data Centres Middle East 2010.

“Data centre operators confront many new challenges as the pace of change in technologies increases and market growth is sustained. These awards, which we have introduced for the first time in the region, will define best in breed benchmarks for service quality, management excellence and technical achievement for the industry,' Low added.

The awards will be presented at the second 'Data Centres Middle East' conference to be held fom May 25 to 26 at the Injazat Auditorium in Abu Dhabi.

The conference will see influential IT experts and decision makers in the data centre industry from all over the region discuss how their presence can strengthen their foothold in the market for the long term.

The two-day forum will also include a special focus on enterprise customers of data centres and their evolving outsourcing needs as emerging private clouds, new technologies and market shift impact the sector. The conference is provided each year with results of new research conducted by BroadGroup Consulting.

Injazat Data Systems is the patron of the event, and sponsors include HP, eHosting Datafort, Danway, Meeza, and Interxion. itSMF Gulf is Knowledge Partner. Media partners include Datacentres.com News Search, Middle East IT Insight, TradeArabia, IX News Search, Data Centre News, Telecom Deal Alert and IT One.-TradeArabia News Service