[Nigeria in data centre expansion quest amid broadband constraints] Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy by GDP, is in the midst of an unprecedented data centre construction boom, even as terrestrial connections and lastmile broadband connectivity continue to lag, industry insiders say. With all three submarine cable landing stations in close proximity to Lagos, urban areas in the commercial nerve centre have been the first to benefit from faster internet connections, according to them. The same cannot be said about rural areas without requisite broadband infrastructure. The race to rapidly expand the nation’s Information Technology (IT) infrastructure to power the fast-growing dot com and online banking enterprises, industry insiders say, is providing fresh business opportunities for foreign equipment vendors, as well as local technology firms, and could soon see Africa’s most populous country emerge with one of the most advanced computing infrastructures in the world. “Abundance of data, its rapid growth rate at unexpected speeds, global digitisation, hence higher dependence on data availability, security, integrity and lack of qualified facilities to host them, are driving data centre projects in Nigeria”, says Mehdi Paryavi, president, TechXact Group Corporation, USA in an interview. According to him, this trend is also taking place in advanced economies where banks, oil and gas, and other multi-national firms that require high-speed, secure digital storage facilities, are moving away from running their own in-house computer centres, towards outsourcing this business to commercial operators. “The central bank is seeking an effective data storage centre, and banks generally will be one of the main drivers for data centres, not just for banks but for stockbrokers, insurance firms”, said Rex Mafiana, chief executive officer (CEO) at FPG Technologies & Solutions Limited. Global data centre operators have flocked to the Nigerian market, particularly since 2011, with the likes of Google’s cloud platform aggressively marketing their services to corporations. Microsoft, US based software firm, launched its global Office 365 cloud solution in Nigeria in June 2012. Dell’s global CEO, on the other hand, visited Nigeria in July 2012 in a bid to promote Dell servers or local data warehousing initiatives. Massive investments being ploughed into data centre initiatives are expected to also put the country’s 17.6 million Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on the global stage. “With data centres, SMEs can get access to innovative and affordable computing services that would improve productivity and efficiency”, Austin Okere, group managing director, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), told BusinessDay at the launch of the firm’s multi-million naira data centre project in Lagos. “With our own data centre, we will launch innovative services to Nigeria’s entrepreneur community. We are going to provide them with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications on the cloud which they would pay for on a subscription basis”, he further explained. Funke Opeke, CEO, MainOne is however of the view that data centres will help create a digital economy. Speaking with journalists during a tour of the company’s $25 million, tier 3 data centre in Lagos, expected to be completed in Q4 2014, Opeke said, “Almost every day now, we see a new online business model in the likes of the Konga, jumia, wakanow, jobberman, who have local information, services, goods here in Nigeria to serve this market”, she told BusinessDay. These online businesses, according to the MainOne CEO, will require a lot of computing power to manage these huge volumes of business transaction. According to her, the data centre will essentially aid the reduction in information technology costs and risks, while enhancing business efficiency and profitability. “It will help improve the ability of organisations to move their critical business processes online, as well as accelerate the evolution of Nigeria into a digital economy when launched.” There are several other data centre projects in the pipeline. Construction has already commenced on the Bankers Warehouse facility and the new Data Centre in Lagos, using IBM Smart Modular Technologies. The data centre is expected to be operational in late 2014. Rack Centre, only recently announced the launch of its tier 3 data centre. Telecoms operators in the country are jumping on the data centre bandwagon, seeking to capitalise on the opportunity to lock in their corporate customers further, even without always realising the difficult road ahead. Globacom, the second national operator, has already completed a 2,000 square foot data centre in Lagos. This infrastructure would allow the firm provide cloud services to a plethora of industry verticals. Also, MTN Nigeria has deployed a high-grade data centre with 500 square metres of collocation and hosting space in Lagos. By virtue of this Information Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure, the South African company is offering cloud-based services targeted at SMEs in the country. India’s Bharti Airtel also opened its 1,858 square metre Lagos data centre in 2012, to cater to its subscribers. Internet Solutions West Africa, invested N1.65bn ($10.5m) over a two year period (2009 to 2011) in building two data centres in Lagos, covering a combined space of 125 sq metres. The firm invested N225m in upgrades and expansion of its Victoria island, Lagos, location, in 2011.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 08:29:47 +0000
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