Metrofile Middle East, a joint venture between Al Serkal Group and M’sharie LLC, the private equity arm of Dubai Investments, has announced that it has recently opened the largest dedicated records storage and processing centre in the Middle East to cater to the increasing demand for outsourced document storage. The Centre, located at Metrofile’s new headquarters in Dubai Investments Park (DIP), includes a multi-level storage unit for inactive records that has a storage capacity of 520,000 square feet, which equates to around 388 million documents. A custom built document processing centre supports the storage unit, with the capacity to handle around 24 million documents per month. The facility also houses the region’s largest media vault, which is equipped to hold up to 300,000 standard computer backup tapes, incorporating state-of-the-art monitoring and safety measures for ideal temperature and humidity. Khalifa Al Daboos, Chairman of Metrofile commented, “Demand for professional document storage facilities is soaring throughout the Middle East, as the high cost of renting or buying office space has made in-house storage less viable. We have created a facility designed to provide clients with the ideal storage and processing conditions for all of their records.” “Moving our headquarters and main operations centre to DIP was a strategic decision for us, and reflects the growth that has occurred in Dubai in recent years. Our convenient location combined with an ideal state-of-the-art facility places us in a unique position to provide our clients with unparalleled services,” Al Daboos added. Metrofile provides protection for sensitive data stored at the facility through the use of an inert gas system that monitors conditions and can automatically dispense the gas in case of a fire. The new Centre also features on-site guards to provide 24/7 surveillance, in addition to advanced security systems with intelligent access control and real time monitoring. The new Centre has already been earmarked for expansion, with extensive plans aiming to grow the available storage space to around 1.75 million square feet by 2008. The Dubai-based company specialises in document storage for active and inactive documents and offers off-site and on-site document storage and computer backup in addition to various electronic document management solutions. Metrofile has a portfolio of high-ranking clients including government organisations.