In order to ensure continuous uptime and minimize outages as much as possible, the main power supply comes from the national grid.

Yesterday onsite at the Namanve Industrial and Business Park, Raxio Data Centre welcomed a key partner in the construction of the Tier III carrier-neutral data center, UMEME Limited is the national electricity distributor and being a partner with Raxio will guarantee more power sources.

The equipment, consisting of a Ring Main Unit, Metering Unit, Meter Box and supporting accessories, will ensure that Raxio’s Data Centre is kitted with vast power connections to operate at full capacity. 

Remarks from the Officials

While receiving the equipment Raxio Data Centre General Manager Mr. James Byaruhanga noted that: 

“As Raxio Data Centre, we are excited about this step forward, this is a huge milestone for this project as power is a very crucial element in our operations. The connection of the Ring Main Unit (RMU) to the UMEME Limited power ring means power is delivered to Raxio Data Centre from two different power sources – Namanve Power Sub-Station and Kiwanga Power Sub-Station. This is unique as it complies with N+1 power redundancy that ensures power availability in the event of power failure at one sub-station”. 

Present at the delivery from UMEME Limited was David Birungi (Manager, Stakeholder Relations) and Engineer Isaac Serwadda (Head Capital Projects) who stated that: 

“As Umeme our Mandate is to distribute power efficiently, effectively and reliably. We have Done an underground network within the park that stretches for about 25km. We are doing this to enable easy connections of power to the various industries within the park that has about 100MW demand from about 112 industries of which Raxio Data Centre is a part of.”

It is important to note that data centers provide power to more than just servers. In practical terms, data centre power design accommodates systems that make up its infrastructure.

Among others, air handlers, air cooling, ventilation systems, lighting, environmental controls, fire suppression systems, security systems, surveillance cameras, and sensors all taking up a substantial amount of power. 

For now, Raxio continues to welcome partners to power its Tier III data center located in Namanve that will be available to private and public companies in Uganda.

Leaping at a low-cost margin, once finished, Raxio data center will be one of the few Tier III level data centers in the country after NITA-U’s Government Data Center in Jinja.

Raxio data center is a Tier III level center that was launched in 2018 and has today unveiled nine new local fiber carriers at its Namanve bases carrier-neutral facility. Selected carriers will provide uncapped Internet connectivity to enable seamless data connections at competitive prices.

The selected fibre Internet carriers 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 and Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL). 

While addressing the fiber carriers, the Raxio Data center General manager, Mr. James Byaruhanga inked that with efficiency-centric providers, customers will enjoy the benefits of choosing a carrier-neutral data Center as he said:

We are happy to unveil these nine local fiber carriers who all represent efficiency and high quality in connectivity. As a carrier-neutral data center, our customers will have multiple local fiber carriers to select from; this provides geographical and physical redundancy and diversity to support their critical business operations

James Byaruhanga – General Manager, Raxio Data Center

In light of the current socio-economic challenges, Raxio Data Centre is encouraging customers to view an outsourced carrier-neutral data center as a better way of supporting their business operations as it enables multiple points of connectivity redundancy, resilience in service, optimal uptime, and diversity in option selection.

Additionally, local fiber will have an extended reach to more customers which in return will spur their general business growth as connectivity providers to maximise market penetration and optimise return on investment (ROI). 

Nevertheless, with this new move, Raxio data center will now attract customers from multiple industries like banking, financial services, content & media, government & non-government, education, healthcare, retail & e-commerce, utilities, transport, energy, as well as technology and communications driven industries, among others. 

Once completed Raxio Uganda’s tier III facility will become the cornerstone of digitisation in the country, allowing customers to seamlessly cross-connect within the data center providing a consistent and reliable experience for local SEACOM’s customers.

As the global carrier partner, SEACOM will drive the Internet in Uganda closer to businesses, offering affordable, reliable and quality Internet connectivity – highlighting the mutual benefit of the partnership. 

Raxio Uganda was established by First Brick Holdings Inc, as the first of its network of state-of-the-art data centers across the region. As an open-access data centre, Raxio Uganda will offer a wide variety of connectivity options, providing diversity and flexibility for SEACOM’s customers.

The new data center, which is currently under construction and is set to be completed in Q1 2020, will operate according to Tier III standards facility. At full capacity, Raxio Uganda will be able to accommodate up to 400 racks and deliver 1.5MW of power, in a fully redundant, high-security environment.

Tonny Tugee, MD of East Africa SEACOM explains, “This partnership with Raxio Uganda will be key as we drive to expand our business in this important market. Raxio Uganda’s new enterprise-grade facilities will ensure the delivery of a full range of services, in a stable, ‘always-on’ environment, to our customers in Uganda. We’re also excited about the potential to extend our relationship outside of Uganda, further augmenting the geographic reach and network infrastructure we can offer our customers.”

Robert Mullins, Executive Director at First Brick Holdings, Raxio Uganda’s parent company, adds, “Bringing SEACOM onboard is a testament to the growing recognition of Raxio Uganda as the go-to partner for cross-connects, delivering robust enterprise-grade, open access data infrastructure, optimised and deployed to meet our customers’ needs. We are also delighted with the opportunity to explore new opportunities to work together in the broader region”.

Both SEACOM and Raxio Data Centre will be attending AfricaCom – the leading African telecommunications, media and technology conference – in Cape Town on 12-14 November 2019.

Raxio Data Centre will be exhibiting at this year’s conference from stand #DC24, showcasing its state-of-the-art data centre facilities and colocation services, as well as discussing key trends for data centre and communications infrastructure investment in Africa.