James Byaruhanga, the General Manager of Raxio Data Centre addresses the media during the press launch as Robert Mullins, the CEO of Raxio Group, looks on. Raxio Data Centre is the first privately owned carrier-neutral facility, that meets the international Tier III standard. It will house around 400 racks and be able to provide 1.5MW of IT power to ensure the equipment housed within it operates optimally, 24/7, in a fully safe, secure and redundant environment
Raxio recently launched Uganda’s first state of the art Tier III carrier-neutral data centre at its site in the Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP), Uganda.
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, hyper scale-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).
Joan Nantambi, the Network Operations Centre Engineer at Raxio Data Centre, gives guests a glimpse of the information management systems in place. Raxio Data Centre will work to support industries that are facing increasingly complex and unique IT and regulatory challenges. By providing these industries with the technological infrastructure they need to transform their businesses, Raxio Data Centre will help drive economic growth, social development, and digital transformation throughout Uganda, East Africa and Africa at large. PHOTO/Courtesy
Jeremiah Kasirye (left, white shirt) who is the Raxio Data Centre Site Manager, takes guests through a guided tour explaining the technical capabilities in place at Raxio Data Centre. Raxio Data Centre is a carrier-neutral data centre and is purpose-built and certified to Tier III standards, to offer 99.99% uptime and best-in-class equipment. They offer customers affordable, secure colocation spaces and hosting environments of up to 400 racks to hold all mission-critical IT infrastructure in a 24/7 redundant environment.Ambassador Natalie E. Brown (centre) the United States Ambassador to Uganda, is taken around the Raxio Data Centre facilities by Mr. Robert Mullins (left) the CEO of Raxio Group and Mr. Brooks Washington, Board of Director at Raxio Group. Following the visit, @USAmbUganda (the Official Twitter account of the U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Natalie E. Brown) shared the following tweets. “Excited to be at launch of @raxioug to celebrate this private sector $15 million investment in Uganda. The data center will drive economic growth, social development & digital transformation, more efficient access to cloud-based services, reduce costs, & increase connection speeds. The state-of-the-art Tier 3 data centre is the 1st in Uganda, has employed 100s of Uganda’s in its construction and is creating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) jobs and opportunities in related sectors. 40% of the staff are women!”John R Musinguzi (Centre), the Commissioner-General – Uganda Revenue Authority talks with the Guest of Honour – Hon Bagiire Vincent Waiswa, Permanent Secretary – Ministry Of ICT & National Guidance as Roke Telkom founder Kenneth Kiiza (left) listens in, during the launch event. In the State Of The Nation Address, 2021, the Head of State of Uganda announced ICT as one of the 4 key focus areas of growth to concentrate on in order to transform Uganda into a Middle income country, on the road to becoming a First World country. Indeed, Raxio Data Centre has ideally been established to build the foundation of the Ugandan digital economy. As the digital transformation of the Ugandan economy continues to accelerate, Raxio Data Centre will address the vast and growing need for facilities where data supporting this transformation can be stored and processed securely and optimally, 100% of the timeGuests take a look at the state of the art server racks that are housed in the data hall. As mobile penetration increases among Africa’s large demographic of digital natives, data consumption and demand are growing at exponential rates. To support this new digital economy and to deliver the content and services required by their customers, Raxio Data Centre believes that organisations require the most secure, reliable, and high-performance data storage and processing environments. By offering sophisticated data centre facilities and services in prime connectivity hotspots, Raxio Data Centre will work to serve this need and help organisations grow, compete, and achieve their full potential.The Guest of Honour – Hon Bagiire Vincent Waiswa, Permanent Secretary – Ministry Of ICT & National Guidance – gives his speech on the occasion of the official launch of Raxio Data Centre. He said that Raxio’s Data Centre will support the core priorities of the Ministry of ICT in Uganda, that among others, include extending the ICT infrastructure network to cover the entire country to ensure digital inclusion; increasing job creation through ICT Research & Innovation as well as Information security: improve and ensure the Information Security System is secure, reliable, resilient, and capable of responding to cyber security threat. Guests walk through the reception area at Raxio Data Centre. This reception area is one of the critical 7 layers of physical security installed between the entrance of Raxio Data Centre and the servers in the data hall. This security is complemented with 24/7 CCTV monitoring in addition to onsite security. With these advanced 24/7 security controls such as CCTV and on-site security, Raxio Data Centre can give customers peace of mind and guarantee that their critical assets stay protected. In addition, there is also a variety of authentication and monitoring systems and physical caging, to ensure the highest levels of security for clients.Robert Mullins the CEO of Raxio Group gives his speech to guests during the launch event. Raxio Data Centre in Uganda is a part of the wider Raxio Group that is focused on investing in, building and operating world-class Tier III data centres across Africa. The Raxio Group has started building its second site in Ethiopia and plans are underway to add five additional facilities over the next year. Through its investments and hands-on approach, Raxio seeks to address the latent demand for critical data centre infrastructure that will drive digital transformation across the region, and be a foundational stone to underpin growth in the digital economy and connect Africa to the global data economy.James Byaruhanga, the General Manager of Raxio Data Centre, makes a case for data centres in his official presentation during the launch event. In his presentation, James shared the history of the 1st and 2nd Industrial Revolution which were mainly characterized by the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States. With the 3rd Industrial Revolution focusing on how economic change occurred when new communication technologies converged with new energy regimes, mainly, renewable electricity, James challenged the guests if they were ready for the 4th Industrial Revolution; a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies. He ended his presentation with a pitch on how the Role of a Data Centre in this 4th Industrial Revolution and how businesses can use it to their advantage to better business and operational processes.
