Airtel Sierra Leone has ordered a combined data and telecom center from Flexenclosure.
In a multi-million dollar deal, Flexenclosure will install its trademark eCenters olution for Airtel Sierra Leone in the country’s capital Freetown. The contract has been signed and construction of the eCenter has commenced at Flexenclosure’s factory in Vara, Sweden. The facility is expected to be operational within six months.
eCenter by Flexenclosure is a custom-designed, prefabricated data center building that is fast to deploy, energy efficient and easy to expand. For Airtel Sierra Leone, Flexenclosure will provide a facility of 385sqm which will include an IT data center, telecom network switching center, transmission room and staging area. The facility will be an important addition to Airtel Sierra Leone’s telecom and data infrastructure, expanding the company’s existing network and IT capacity.
“As the leading telecommunications provider in Sierra Leone, we constantly strive to bring in the latest technology in our infrastructure development for the benefit of our customers”, said Sudipto Chowdhury, MD, Airtel Sierra Leone. “This new data center fits right into this strategy. It provides fast expansion as well as activation of both new telecoms and data services to meet increasing customer demand. Once completed, the project will generate IT & Telecom awareness amongst young local engineers and technicians as well as providing opportunities for long term employment monitoring and maintaining the data center.”
“This is the first deployment of its kind on such a big scale for Airtel in Africa and Asia and will bring about a major transformation in data center building technology and standards”, said Pradeep Vats, group head - Real Estate and Data Center Facilities, Bharti Airtel International. “This data center will be of very high quality, meeting Tier 3 standards. The main objective to select Prefab Modular DC technology & Flexenclosure as partner for this project was to be sure of receiving the best design, quick deployment time, easy expandability and energy efficient power & cooling equipment, thus achieving both redundancy as well as a large reduction in our energy costs. The combination of latest DC build technology by Flexenclosure in their factory and use of local material and labour for DC Utility Block in Sierra Leone, has allowed us to design the project as a unique hybrid solution which is being done probably first time by anyone in Asia & Africa. We plan to develop many more such DCs in other countries of Africa in near future to further enhance our IT & Network Infrastructure & Services.”
“This order is very rewarding since it is our first eCenter order from Airtel; the first ever deployment in Sierra Leone by Flexenclosure; and indeed the first ever prefabricated modular data center in the country,” said David King, CEO, Flexenclosure. “This underlines our leadership in prefabricated data centers in the developing world. Sierra Leone is a logistically challenging place to deliver this kind of project in, but we have a phenomenal track record of successfully delivering in challenging environments,”
