Telone commissions Mazowe data centre expansion project
FAITH MADZINGA
Zimbabwe’s fixed telecommunications operator, TelOne, on Thursday officially commissioned its data center expansion project in Mazowe, a move meant to support the growth of digital economy .
Speaking at the launch , the ICT, Postal and Courier Services Minister, Jenfan Muswere, said the project was critical in enhancing data sovereignty.
“ Data centres help us transcend our geological limitations and market size by allowing us to compete with bigger economies through connections to the rest of the world to access new markets and resources. Facilities such as this one enables our companies to take advantage of their initiatives that we are party to such as African Continental Free Trade Area ( AFCTA) ,” Muswere said.
He added: “I have taken a particular interest on the subject of data sovereignty which should never be underestimated. This project therefore enhances our data sovereignty by ensuring that personal information of Zimbabweans which is a valuable commodity in the global market is kept within our borders for use by our people to bring value to the nation at large. The TelOne Data centre enables entrepreneurs and corporates to capitalise on the opportunity to produce and distribute local content through local resources reducing our burdens on under sea cables as a landlocked country.”
The expansion has enabled Telone to fully manage and secure disaster recovery hosting for carrier grade IT resiliency.
TelOne chairman Douglas Zimbango said the expansion strengthens Zimbabwe’s capacity to provide cloud based services.
: “This modular data centre enhances TelOne’s ability to offer a full suite rack product from quarter racks up to 48 Rack unit. This means that our customers who are largely banks and other financial organizations, telecommunications providers, private companies, government departments, and a range of information technology services providers will enjoy highly customizable fully managed and secure disaster recovery hosting for carrier grade IT resiliency,” Zimbango said.
He added; “Data centres are now becoming the ones storing data for companies as companies no longer need to store their own data which makes data centres to become specialized business in this area .
“More than 79% of African organizations are expected to shift to the cloud by 2025. The size of the African Data Centre market by investment was US$2bn in 2020 and its expected to reach US$5bn by 2026.
“TelOne is highly committed to take Zimbabwe there and promote data centre development. TelOne is making a difference since Africa currently accounts for less than 1%of total global data centre capacity according to Xalam analytics .
“The expansion strengthens the capacity to provide cloud based services such as virtual private servers , web and email hosting . TelOne uptime statistics is 99,98% aligned with international best practice which is very pleasing.
Telone will continue to take full advantage of its strength to facilitate data centre development in Zimbabwe to support the growth of Zimbabwe’s digital economy and smart city development.”
