N900 BILLION INVESTMENT HONEY POT IN DATA CENTER DEPLOYMENT

There There is a N900 billion investment honey pot in data center deployment, a critical infrastructure needed to provide faster and cheaper internet connectivity, waiting to be tapped, if only the Federal Government can resolve the power and broadband infrastructure short comings, analysts have said.  The Ministry of Communication Technology has estimated that approximately 300 data centres will be required in the coming years, to hold affordable internet services and software applications in Nigeria.  A world class data warehouse is estimated to cost between $20 million and $30 million. This means that Nigeria requires an investment of approximately N900 billion for its planned 300 data centers.
 Foreign Information Technology (IT) companies, such as Google Incorporated, Microsoft Corporation and Oracle, have at various fora, said they would be willing to invest in this place.  The companies however expressed concern that two years after the landing of fibre-optic submarine cables on Nigerias shores, the country has been unable to speed up the pace of wholesale fibre access, due to the absence of a broadband policy that promotes infrastructure sharing and competition.
  Technology firms such as Google Inc. are interested in investing hugely in data centres, if Nigeria can address the power challenge and speedily tackle the issue of lastmile connectivity and distribution capacity, so as to spread available bandwidth capacity across the entire country, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, communications manager, Anglophone West Africa, for Google, told BusinessDay.  Yes, broadband infrastructure is important but power is even more vital. Today, Nigeria is yet struggling with unstable power supply.Importantly, data centres consume a lot of electricity, Taofeek Okoya, director, business and strategy, for Kits Technologies, a data center infrastructure provider, told BusinessDay.
  Nigeria is indeed a huge market and the potentials here are huge for local and foreign IT companies, he said, adding that As I speak, there are lots of data center initiatives on-going in the country. A lot of banks and government agencies are building data centres.  Okoya further said there was  great necessity for data middle owners to construct competent human capacity to manage their high cost infrastructure. Data middle deployment, according to analysts and market watchers, is a huge business, capable of creating wealth and job opportunities.  BusinessDay  gathered that a large data middle might have from 100 to as many as 300 upon-site employees. But interestingly, data centres give impetus to Nigerias online business community to provide innovative services cost-effectively.
A senior executive at Microsoft West Africa, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak, said massive investments would be ploughed into data middle deployment over the next few years.  Hopefully, when we profit power and broadband right, then technology firms like Microsoft can concentrate upon bridging Nigerias and indeed Africas digital divide.
Data centres will also make a lot of employment for Nigerians directly and indirectly, he added.  The rise in the availability of international bandwidth connectivity from underwater fibre-optic cable systems, has attracted a lot of foreign ICT companies into the country.  Data center deployment is one area expected to witness a boom in coming years. But the absence of last mile broadband connectivity, technical know-how and expertise, continue to slow down progress in data middle deployment.  Giving her perspective upon what needs to be done to address Nigerias internet access problem, Funke Opeke, chief executive officer of MainOne Cable Company, who was quoted in a recent industry report, said We really need to agree to a commercially viable framework for