In a multi-million dollar deal, Flexenclosure will install its trademark eCentre solution for Airtel Sierra Leone in the country’s capital Freetown. The contract has been signed and construction of the eCentre has commenced at Flexenclosure’s factory in Vara, Sweden. The facility is expected to be operational within six months.
eCentre by Flexenclosure is a custom-designed, prefabricated data centre 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 centre, telecom network switching centre, 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 centre 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 centre.”
“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 centre building technology and standards”, said Pradeep Vats, Group Head – Real Estate and Data Center Facilities, Bharti Airtel International. “This data centre 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 eCentre order from Airtel; the first ever deployment in Sierra Leone by Flexenclosure; and indeed the first ever prefabricated modular data centre in the country,” said David King, CEO, Flexenclosure. “This underlines our leadership in prefabricated data centres 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,”
Airtel Sierra Leone is the leading communications provider in Sierra Leone. The company is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Bharti Airtel ranks amongst the top four mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.
David King, CEO, Flexenclosure
