TelOne unveils Zim’s first data centre

Source: TelOne unveils Zim’s first data centre – DailyNews Live

BUSINESS EDITOR      27 March 2017

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s fixed telecommunications firm, TelOne, has unveiled
the country’s first world class data centre as part of strategies to
diversify its business and increase revenue streams.

The state-of-the-art data centre, which is a sub-project of the National
Broadband (NBB) Project, is expected to transform TelOne to become a fixed
mobile converged company with emphasis on broadband, cloud and digital
services.

TelOne managing director Chipo Mtasa said the data centre was a strategic
location for storing, processing, accessing and distributing large amounts
of data.

“The facilities we have built are world class, Tier 3 (three) meaning we
guarantee reliability at 99,98 percent uptime. I therefore implore on all
of you to seriously consider us to host you instead of constructing your
own centres,” she said.

Market experts said government institutions, parastatals and industry
players like banks and other big data corporations can enjoy the services
offered by the data centre such as co-location, disaster recovery, back-up
and storage, bandwidth rental and a diversity of cloud services.

Individuals and small to medium enterprises can also enjoy the variability
of services which include web hosting and rack space rental.

“As a specialised entity, not only are we guaranteeing the expertise but
we will as also help you cut your connectivity costs by up to 35 percent,”
Mtasa said.

Beyonad the national broadband network project, the TelOne data centre is
also one of the great achievements made by the parastatal to connect with
the digital world and become competitive again in the national telecom
market.

The company’s chairperson, Charles Samu, said TelOne has already invested
almost $33 million in the $98 million granted by China Exim Bank to
upgrade its network through the deployment of fibre optic.

ICT minister Supa Mandiwanzira said the launch of the data centre was an
important development worth celebrating “as it is in sync with the big
data era that the country has entered into making such facilities
indispensable”.

“The mandate to roll out the national optic fibre backbone has been given
to TelOne whom we are expecting to drive connectivity in the underserved
areas. Beyond the backbone network, I am aware that some work is also
being done to deliver fibre to the home in some green-fields areas,” he
said.