Galaxy Backbone, WACREN Ink Agreement for Cloud Computing, Shared Services Infrastructure

Galaxy Backbone Ltd, a leading ICT infrastructure and services company in Nigeria is set to empower tertiary institutions and Research Education Networks (RENs) in West and Central Africa with its cloud computing infrastructure and other shared ICT services as well as other professional services in order to improve the quality of research, teaching and education with the regions.

This is the highlight of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Galaxy Backbone Ltd and West and Central Research Education Network (WACREN).

Galaxy Backbone Ltd is a wholly-owned enterprise of the Federal Government of Nigeria based on the need for Government to pursue a coordinated and harmonized approach to information and communications technology acquisition, operation and use in the Public Sector.

Established in 2006, the ICT company is mandated to be the provider of ICT infrastructure solutions to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government of Nigeria and to build and operate a common infrastructure platform to support the MDAs' e-Government programs.

Towards the performance of its mandate, Galaxy has deployed a pervasive ICT platform that has enabled MDAs improve their ability to collect, process and analyze data in order to create information and knowledge; boost their capabilities, and enhance their job performance.

Under the MOU, Galaxy shall leverage its 1-GOV.net shared ICT services platform for MDAs as a platform for integrating Government with Academic Institutions for the purposes of mutual improvement, knowledge exchange and transfer towards attaining national development objectives.

The partnership between Galaxy and WACREN follows the success of the AfricaConnect project which contributed to the creation of a high-speed R&E network in Eastern and Southern Africa between 2011and 2015.

AfricaConnect2, a partnership ICT project between WACREN and GÉANT will develop high-capacity internet networks across the entire African continent and connect them to the European GÉANT network, allowing students, researchers and academics in Africa and beyond to collaborate.

The connectivity boost will not only advance research and education locally with opportunities like e-learning and cloud computing, but it will equally benefit scientific studies the world over in areas such as climate change, biodiversity, food security, malaria and other infectious diseases.

WACREN (a non-profit organization) was initiated in 2006 with a mission to build and operate a world class network infrastructure, develop state of the art services, promote collaboration among national, regional, international research and education communities and build the capacity of the Research Education Network (REN) community.

WACREN has as its core objective, the promotion and establishment of interconnections between national research and education networks in West and Central Africa in order to form a regional research and education network, the interconnection of this network with other regional and continental networks, and the provision of services aiming at fostering collaboration between research and education institutions in the region as well as between them and peer institutions at continental and international levels.

The signing of the MOU formalizes the principle of a collaboration between the parties on cloud computing infrastructure and other shared ICT services on the one hand and generation of relevant academic content on the other hand along with other professional services.