The General Manager of the MainOne Data Center subsidiary,
MDXI, Mr. Gbenga Adegbiji has said that they are achieving almost 100 per cent
power uptime availability, with a surmountable over 90 per cent of that power
coming directly from the national grid, reports ITRealms.
According to him, power availability in Nigeria may be the
bane for other data centers and enterprises, but not for MDXI, because of the
kind of facilities they have put in place.
Reacting to a recent media report that was quoted to another
data center operator who complained that power is a key problem across Africa
and Nigeria’s power issues are on a larger scale and more constant than
experienced globally, Adegbiji debunked the myth that power hungry industries
such as data centers cannot successfully operate in Nigeria, claiming MDXI has
enjoyed over 90 per cent power uptime since 2015 and is poised to achieve 95
per cent availability in 2018, based on a growing partnership with a local power
distribution company.
During an interview at the data center recently, Adegbiji
stressed the MDXI facility was purpose-built to mitigate all challenges that
global businesses may have in a Nigerian data center. He mentioned that before
constructing the data center, the company realized 24x7 power supply was a
critical challenge for businesses requiring high availability colocation
infrastructure within Nigeria and invested in a direct private connection to
the National grid through newly privatized Eko Electricity Distribution Plc.
“We recognized the crippling impact of downtimes, the
peculiarities of the Nigerian power environment as an albatross that had forced
many companies to relocate outside Nigeria and ensured MDXI was established
with the most robust electricity power and back-up arrangements, in line with
the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) ANSI/TIA-942, the leading
Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers. Though we made
provision for the full complement of generators and diesel tanks with capacity
of over 100,000 liters to secure the data center’s operations and guarantee
99.995% availability, we also partnered with Eko Disco and co-invested in a
dedicated 33KV feeder and line connection to the National Grid through the Ajah
sub-station. Connecting directly to the grid provides us access to multiple
power generating plants and guarantees backup in the event that one power plant
goes down. This was a capital investment of hundreds of millions in substation
equipment and dedicated power lines which bypass all ‘last-mile’ challenges
encountered in electricity distribution. This has guaranteed an increase in
power availability at the data center from 50% average commercial power
availability to between 95% and 98%” Adegbiji said.
Aside the steady state of operation and the attendant
reliability of equipment and systems that the public power provides, MDXI has
been able to guarantee a significant cost savings which is passed on to its
numerous customers which include Banks, Government parastatals, international
financial organizations and the large over-the-top operators. The data center’s
performance and service delivery has earned the company an Impact Award during
the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Impact Awards
for its contribution to improving Nigeria’s rank in the “Ease of Doing
Business” index through its colocation of critical server infrastructure for
the Federal Government.
Chief Executive Officer, Eko Disco, Mr. Adeoye Fadeyibi highlighted
MDXI as a stellar example of how privatization of the power sector is making a
positive contribution to the Nigerian economy by guaranteeing a higher level of
power availability. “With MDXI’s significant investment in last mile
transmission and distribution infrastructure, EKEDC has been able to provide an
average of 88% uninterrupted uptime to the data center on a monthly basis since
its launch in January 2015.”
Nonye Dom/GEE
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