With the remarkable achievements recorded over the last two or three years in making Nigeria a fully digitized economy, the news that Nigeria is set to launch a world class and tastefully built Tier IV Data Center is a welcome development. Coming at a time when so much data is being generated across businesses and industries at an alarming rate, Nigeria Galaxy Backbone is perfectly aligned with the national aspiration to be an active player in global digitalization.
And in all of this, we are not just talking about data in its raw sense, but personal and corporate information of individuals, organizations and governments created daily, which if not protected and documented properly , will lead to disaster. We are talking about data that can make or break the development of any nation and its people.
Galaxy Backbone (GBB) is set to launch its Tier IV data center in Nigeria’s public and private sector space. For an organization which was only established in 2006 by the Federal Government as a limited liability company for the benefit of the whole of Nigeria, it has for the past seven to eight years successfully run the only National Public Sector Tier III Data Center. space, a great feat indeed. It is currently deploying state-of-the-art digital infrastructure and applying international best practices to support public sector organizations with sensitive data and a growing number of private sector organizations to deliver services. The level of professionalism offered has become a benchmark for other organizations considering getting on the platform.
GBB’s Tier IV data center is positioned to appeal to organizations looking to deepen their digital services at a significantly reduced cost of technology infrastructure, improved efficiency and productivity. It has also improved business continuity through cloud and disaster recovery services. The infrastructure was specifically built to meet the desire of its growing base of customers and stakeholders. GBB Tier IV data center storage has a capacity of approximately 2.2 petabytes. This results in huge amounts of data that can be safely stored.
GBB’s responsibility to Federal Government Agencies of Nigeria is to deliver shared services from its ICT infrastructure that will enhance and promote government digital services in a smart, secure and sustainable manner. The huge investments that have been invested in this infrastructure benefit both public and private institutions and GBB’s experience in building, deploying and delivering infrastructure as a service is testament to its ability to manage and continue in this business sector.
This infrastructure, the first Tier IV data center in the country’s public sector and the only one of its kind, built from the commercial city of the country, Lagos and located in another commercial center of the country, Kano, for the recovery disaster recovery, objective backup and redundancy will greatly enhance and deepen the drive for Nigeria’s digital economy to become one of the most recognized digital economies in the world as envisioned by President Muhammadu Buhari and led by the Honorable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami).
It is also worth recalling that in 2020, the vision driven by the Honorable Minister to bring Nigeria to become a fully digitalized economy by 2030 was brought together in the document titled National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020 – 2030 ) and was initiated by the President. In this document, eight pillars have been identified as key instruments to help drive Nigeria towards digital transformation. One of the pillars is solid infrastructure. This TIER IV data center directly feeds into the execution of this pillar, from merely being policy to reality, and significantly advancing Nigeria on its journey to a digitally transformed nation. It is also a huge achievement for the minister, the president and the nation as a whole to be able to have such a large structure with the capacity and capacity to securely store huge amounts of data generated by small businesses , government and other organizations around the world. country.
The role of the GBB is crucial for the development and improvement of people’s standard of living, considering the importance of data today in the lives of professionals in Nigeria and across the world. It has been widely reported that, worldwide, people generate more than 5 quintillion bytes of data daily. Significantly, 51% of this data will, by 2025, be stored in data centers and 49% in the public cloud. However, according to the IDC, 46% of data stored globally will reside in public cloud environments.
What is interesting about these statistics is the fact that this data will be generated by individuals and organizations from all sectors. This is why Professor Muhammad Bello Abubakar, Managing Director of GBB, is very passionate about correcting the narrative that the organization is competing with other private sector ICT companies. According to Abubakar, “Our goal is to collaborate with other private sector ICT companies to enhance digital transformation in Nigeria. I therefore invite all of us to take advantage of this Tier IV data center for the collective benefit of our customers and stakeholders.
It is important to realize that it is only through such initiatives and partnerships that the benefits of data sovereignty are achieved. Indeed, at the heart of it, we all deserve to know where our data is stored, what it is used for, and how quickly we can access it.
A big lesson we should have learned from the last pandemic and how it has transformed our lives until today is the power of data driven by digital platforms that have enabled people to connect with each other. , building relationships, doing business and solving problems. without any physical contact. The trust placed on GBB at this time has given him the opportunity to play a tremendous role which has yielded great achievements and continues to propel him to raise the bar in his provision of digital services across the country.
Professor Abubakar’s leadership in Galaxy Backbone since its takeover in 2020 has led to many breakthroughs and crucial achievements. The organization is living out its reinvigorated mission to provide state-of-the-art digital infrastructure and services for a digital Nigeria. In doing so, it aligns with government priorities, underpinned by a commitment to data sovereignty. Government data security is enhanced.
He has the drive and passion to ensure that Galaxy Backbone plays its role in the country as the digital infrastructure platform of choice for government and other businesses. In the meantime, we have started to see great results with this Tier IV data center being built in record time to global design and operation standards. It’s no surprise that the Uptime Institute, which is the globally recognized institute for data center certification, has certified Galaxy Backbone’s data center, having met all the criteria and guidelines for a data center. TIER IV data.
The Tier IV Data Center is a game changer for everyone across all sectors in Nigeria i.e. Education, Healthcare, Digital Media, SME, Government, Financial Services, etc. . It is designed to support and encourage consistency and sustainability in the generation and protection of data that helps transform lives, improve business opportunities and promote economic prosperity.
Bashir writes from Abuja.