MainOne @ #NCSEnugu2014, Harps on Domestic Data Hosting

Data remain the currency in a knowledge-based world,  hence the process of harnessing and warehousing of such is crucial for every individual, oraganisation or nation to make gain from it, said Ms. Funke Opeke, chief executive office, MainOne Company.

Speaking though Mr. Temitope Osunrinde, marketing support analyst at the Company, during a presentation at Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) national conference in Enugu, Opeke, said that for broadband access to become a reality, at least three key issues must be seriously tackled.

The three areas are content development and management; regulating/policy and infrastructure.

According to the MainOne CEO, infrastructural development is primary, for without adequate infrastructure no organization or a nation can achieve meaningful development.

“Today, we have infrastructure in few places. Most commercial organizations concentrate on business hubs-Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. The reason is simple. Those areas are where they have more businesses. How about infrastructure for use by other people? We need to build infrastructure across board.

“We commend the Infraco initiative; the open access initiative, of the ministry of communication technology. The regulators have done well in that regard. The regulators have done well in that regard.

“Now, we have to look at content. Who is providing this content? Who is warehousing it or hosting the content? Content is your currency in you digital economy. So, you have to be careful where you put your currency.

“Thus, policies should be there to encourage indigenous hosting of these contents in Nigeria. For instance, there is now a regulation in the oil & gas industry that you must host your content within the country, so why can’t we replicate such across board? It should be made to stand in the manufacturing, education, among others”.

She added that MainOne saw the need for such domestic hosting of contents generated in the country which spurred it to building the largest data centre in West Africa.

Also speaking to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek at the conference, Mr. Oluwagbenga Osinoiki, head, Public Sector Sales at MainOne, said that the West Africa’s leading open access submarine cable company will soon unveil its recent milestone in the subregion, been a $25 million (approximately N4 billion) Tier-III Data Centre in Lagos.

He said that the MainOne Data Centre, the largest of its kind in West Africa at 1,500 square metres with a 600 rack capacity shows the Company’s readiness to ensure the present and potential customers heave sigh of relief in terms of data management. 

“We are delighted with this project because of the immense benefits it will provide our customers. Internet penetration has been a huge issue in Nigeria especially to the hinterlands. The project is such that the new Data Centre will leverage on MainOne’s network which is peered with leading operators and internet exchanges worldwide to provide global reach to our customers across all locations.”

“Our performances since the inception of our submarine cable in 2010 distinguish us in this field. We have not experience any major outages since operation began three years ago.” She attributed this to the team of dedicated professional staff engaged by the firm.

“In an investment of this magnitude, you cannot afford to cut corners. We deploy the state of the art monitoring technology device, using GPS surveillance equipment round the clock on our undersea cable. We cannot afford to fail our clients,” he said.

Osinoiki added that the Data Centre, which is expected to be commissioned in Q4, 2014 when fully operational will have redundancy such that there is no single point of failure within the facility.

He added that the MainOne Lekki Data Centre will pave way for the establishment of additional Data Centres and Point of Presence (POPs) across Nigeria and other West African nations.

He said that the multi billionaire project is further proof of MainOne’s commitment to enhance infrastructure within its primary markets.

The head, Public Sector Sales, said, “The new MainOne Data Centre is expected to transform West Africa into a digital economy. The project will also aid reduction of information technology costs and risks while enhancing business efficiency and profitability.”

He said that one of the unique features of MainOne is its direct access to MainOne Metro and International fibre and all the major interconnection with telecom networks in Nigeria and Ghana.

MainOne recently signed a $100 million refinancing facility syndication from a number of local and international banks to help fund its infrastructure expansion including fibre around the country, metro Lagos, and nationwide POPs.

It promises to complete construction of 200 km of a metro-presence across the Lagos metropolis before end of 2013.