MDXi - Afrikan Heroes

MDXi First to Offer Cloud Service Commercially to Customers in Nigeria

February 20, 2020

The coming on stream of Microsoft’s Azure Stack to Africa will enable MDXi be the first data center in Nigeria to offer the Cloud service commercially to customers. African Heroes had two weeks ago, broke the story on the launch of the Microsoft Azure Stack in Africa, and the likelihood of Lagos and Johannesburg being first cities to site the hubs. MDXi, which is a subsidiary of MainOne’s data center will announce the local offering of Microsoft’s Azure Stack to its customers as part of its ‘Managed Cloud Services’. The Stack platform provided in partnership with Microsoft and HPE will be unveiled at MainOne’s 5th annual gathering of customers, partners and tech professionals, called Nerds Unite.

With the introduction of the local offering of Microsoft’s Azure Stack services, MDXi will be the first data center in Nigeria to offer the Cloud service commercially to customers in Nigeria. This latest Cloud offering by MDXi into the Nigerian market will reinforce MainOne’s leadership positioning in the Cloud market, enabling the company to offer its customer a broader suite of cloud solutions. The services which range from managed Cloud deployment on public and private Cloud services in the MDXi data center, to management of offshore deployment on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure also has Express Route services that enable secure, reliable communications to cloud services offshore.

Showcasing at the launch will be some of the benefits of MDXi’s Azure Stack in processing in-country data and applications thereby reducing customer latency to less than 10ms and resulting in better experiences for end users. The demo will also showcase cost effective data storage solutions that allow businesses meet all their data sovereignty requirements with locally domiciled infrastructure.

The new Cloud services platform will offer enterprises and businesses the choice of a scalable, flexible computing platform to enable them migrate critical applications from legacy technology to modernized and more efficient technology without having to go offshore.

“MDXi has been in the business of providing Cloud services to its Enterprise customers for over 5 years, with skilled and certified engineers. We are the data center of choice for Enterprise looking to host data locally in the Cloud. With the introduction of the Azure Stack solution, we further demonstrate our commitment to investing in Cloud infrastructure in order to continually meet the changing and growing requirements of our customers in Nigeria, and indeed across West Africa. Our partnership with Microsoft and investment in HPE infrastructure to deploy the Cloud platform continues to position MDXi as the West Africa’s leading communications solution provider, delivering world-class quality services to our local customers.” said Gbenga Adegbiji, General Manager, MDXi.

Nerds Unite, MainOne’s flagship event of the year, brings together IT professionals, influencers, and decision makers in an environment for one full day to connect, discover opportunities, collaborate, and learn new techniques and breakthrough trends in the global IT industry. This year’s edition will feature presentations and panel discussions on Cloud adoption, Cloud migration and all things Cloud with global leaders across West Africa, making it the perfect platform for MDXI to unveil its new Cloud services.

MDXi builds and operates Tier III data center campuses across West Africa to meet the rapidly expanding global demand for certified data centre facilities. Its Tier III data center in Lekki, Lagos-Nigeria, is the largest purpose-built commercial data center in West Africa, designed with a strong focus on high availability, security, and open access connectivity. Its facilities have operated with 100% uptime since inception.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

MainOne Expands to West African Sub-Region, Lands in Ghana

September 26, 2019

One of Africa’s major data communications company, Nigeria based MainOne has commenced the expansion of its data center brand to the West African sub-region with the establishment a sister company of its subsidiary MDXi in Ghana. This development according to company sources is in line with the company’s ongoing West African expansion plans. The MDXi, the largest commercial data center services provider in West Africa, is extending its imprint into Ghana with the new facility to expand MainOne’s already robust infrastructure and service profile in Ghana.

MainOne Regional Executive, Mr. Kazeem Oladepo

MainOne sources say that the new data center facility to be based in Appolonia City, a mixed use development 20 kilometers from the center of Accra, will be ready for service in the fourth quarter of 2020 to cater to the ever-increasing demand for collocation and interconnection services for multinationals and local businesses seeking shared services facilities for their ICT resources in world class facilities. The sources say that the facility will be designed to international standards consistent with the MainOne brand, assuring collocated customers of the highest quality of service to meet their business requirements.

The facility will also offer customers the opportunity to host infrastructure in a facility guaranteed to provide high levels of availability and rich connectivity with a global network of customers, partners and suppliers thus ensuring 24X7 online deliveries of services for the businesses. MDXi’s world-class infrastructure will feature private data center suites, enterprise-grade 24×7 multi-level security and video surveillance, precision cooling, safety and fire suppression systems with multiple redundancies built into the power, cooling and security infrastructure.

In line with its parent company’s leadership in the telecoms sector, the facility will offer open access connectivity options to all the leading telecom networks in Ghana and direct access to MainOne and other submarine cable systems. The facility will offer access to various Internet Exchanges including the GIX in Ghana, the IXPN in Nigeria, the LINX in the UK, the DECIX in Frankfurt/Lisbon, and the CIVIX in Cote d’Ivoire Internet Exchange as well as the West Africa Internet Exchange (WAF-IX).

Speaking on this expansion process, the Regional Executive of MainOne Mr. Kazeem Oladepo said that as an organization committed to providing broadband infrastructure solutions across West Africa , MainOne is excited to make this investment to support the digitization journey of its customers with the new data center facility. He added that over the past few years, MainOne has grown its business in Ghana to serve major enterprises and “we are delighted to bring our world-class data center expertise to deepen the Ghanaian market. The Ghanaian economy continues to build industrial capacity to show strong economic growth and we need to deploy our best solutions to service the market”.

MDXi’s Tier III data centre in Lekki, Lagos-Nigeria, is the largest purpose-built commercial data center in West Africa, designed with a strong focus on high availability, security, and open access connectivity. It is certified to ISO9001, ISO27001, PCI-DSS and Uptime’s Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility standards. With 600 rack capacity, the data center provides services to a large customer base made up of local and multinational businesses. The facility has experienced tremendous growth in the Financial and Oil & Gas sectors where it has helped advance the digitization efforts of customers and the lessons learned are viewed of particular relevance to these growing sectors in Ghana.

Speaking on the planned expansion, Gbenga Adegbiji, Director, MDXi stated, “Based on our strong track record as the preferred commercial data center in West Africa, it is with great pleasure that we announce the expansion of our MDXi footprint in Ghana. This expansion will see MDXi contributing to the growth of the local economy by providing jobs, enhancing capacity development and economic growth. Most importantly, it ensures that we are fully equipped and positioned to serve more businesses in Ghana as the region continues to grow its digital economy.”

Regarding the impact the expansion will have on the city, Bright Owosu-Amofah, CEO Appolonia City, stated that, “The city’s innovative vision to drive industrialization and social infrastructure has been made possible through partnerships like MainOne and its subsidiary company MDXi, whose data centre infrastructure will play a major role towards the economic growth and viability of Appolonia City, and also be the backbone for a connected ICT ecosystem. We look forward to witnessing the future of Appolonia City businesses being locally hosted and digitally empowered.

Kelechi Deca