Raxio has officially launched Uganda’s first state of the art Tier III carrier-neutral data centre at its site in the Namanve Industrial Park, in Kampala. Raxio will work towards supporting industries that are facing increasingly complex and unique IT and regulatory challenges by providing secure colocation space of up to 400 racks ready to house mission-critical IT infrastructure in a 24/7 redundant environment. The data centre brings the metro edge data centre model to Africa, allowing for the exchange of data traffic in facilities located close to urban centres in state-of-the-art, hyperscale-ready environments.
As a carrier-neutral data centre, Raxio Uganda offers a wide variety of seamless data connectivity options due to a variety of local and international fibre carriers currently connected at the data centre. These include Africell Uganda Limited, Airtel Uganda, Bandwidth and Cloud Services Group (BCS Group), Csquared, Liquid Telecom, MTN Uganda, National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U), Roke Telkom, SEACOM and Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL).
The multiple points of connectivity increase redundancy, resilience in service, optimal uptime, and diversity in business operations, while driving down overall cost of connectivity for customers. In addition, Raxio hosts an instance of the Uganda Internet exchange Point which allows networks to directly interconnect and freely exchange data traffic at a common point in-country, making the Internet cheaper, faster, and more reliable. Raxio’s facility uses state-of-the-art design and technologies to meet customer requirements and while minimizing the impact on the environment. Equipment choices at Raxio Uganda were made and adapted to the local environmental and climatic conditions with a view to continuously reduce energy consumption.
Raxio’s data centre will greatly support the core priorities of the Ministry of ICT in Uganda, including extending the ICT infrastructure network to cover the entire country to ensure digital inclusion, increasing job creation through ICT research and innovation, and improving and ensuring the information security system is secure, reliable, resilient, and capable of responding to cyber security threats.
With the growth in data usage, storage and the broader digital transformation in Uganda, Raxio will be a centrepiece of infrastructure supporting the Ugandan economy and the goals set in the MoICT (Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology) Data Strategy.
“The Raxio Group, supported by a strong institutional investor base, is on track to launch up to 12 carrier-neutral facilities across Africa within the next three years; we strongly believe that by providing the right technological infrastructure needed to transform businesses, our data centres will help drive economic growth, social development, and digital transformation throughout Africa,” Robert Mullins, the CEO of Raxio Group, said.
James Byaruhanga, the general manager of Raxio Data Centre added that the construction of the flagship facility has been a long but rewarding journey to this point that they are launching operations. “Raxio Data Centre is a dream come true, with our Tier III certification from the Uptime Institute we believe that this facility will be a bedrock for increased economic development in Uganda as it will attract several opportunities for colocation not only regionally but also internationally. We look forward to the positive impact of our facility across the enterprise and SME markets, and on key industries such as financial services, content and media,” he added.
The launch ceremony, held at the heart of Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP), was presided over by the President of the Republic of Uganda H.E. Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni and witnessed by high-ranking Government officials, senior business executives, ICT professionals and members of the diplomatic corps in Uganda.
