Telcom Strengthens Its Internet Muscle Through New Ksh150 Million Data Centre

Telkom has escalated its data war against Safaricom and Airtel after launching a KSh150 million data Centre in Nairobi’s Upper Hill. The centre is set to up its network quality, colocation and hosting services, internet connectivity and local loop connectivity.

According to the developers of the facility, it is capable of hosting all Telco’s infrastructure for both local and international clients.

It has three diverse fiber routes serving the site to ensure uptime through redundancy to three different exchanges of Westlands, GPO Nairobi and South-Hill Exchanges in Nairobi.

The data center sits on a 1160 m² space, with an ability to provide up to 4KW of IT load for 30 rack servers and has a rack area designed to accommodate up to 52U rack height with adjustments on floor footprint.

Telkom Chief Executive Officer Mr Aldo Mareuse says that the investment is set to
leverage on the rising demand for cloud-based services for Kenyan and regional businesses.

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“It gives our clients three redundant fiber routes guaranteeing back-up and access to
international capacity on the Submarine Cables (TEAMS, EASSy and LION2) from Nairobi, enabling us to redeploy superior services competitively beyond market offering,” says Mr Mareuse.

Addressing journalists who attended the launch, Cabinet Secretary for IT Joe Mucheru urged enterprises entrusted with data to put in place measures to safeguard data from internal and external compromise.

“In recent days, there have been several cyber threats locally and internationally, leading to losses by individuals and organizations. As we have learnt in the same period, the threats are not necessarily external – some cyber threats originate internally. The Government will continue to invest in initiatives that tackle the ever-evolving cyber threats to back up our readiness and timely response,” says CS Mucheru.

The number of broadband connections is expected to grow at an average of 20 per cent a year in the next five years, according to the African Data Centre Market Report 2017.

As part of Telkom’s rebranding last year, Telkom revamped its Carrier Services Division, under Managing Director Mr Kebaso George Mokogi.

Global spending for big data and business analytics hardware, software and services is
projected to rise from the current $150.8 billion (KSH15.1 trillion)to $210 billion (Ksh21 trillion) by 2020, according to telecommunications analyst firm IDC.

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