Raxio Data Centre, a premier provider of data center services, was a proud sponsor and active participant at the RENU ICT Directors Forum 2024, held from July 18 to 19 at Speke Resort Munyonyo. This year’s forum, themed “Trust and Identity” and “Connectivity,” aimed to highlight the importance of secure and reliable ICT environments within educational and research institutions.
“The RENU ICT Directors Forum is a crucial platform for our members’ accountability. When we come together in this forum, we reflect on the services we offer through the feedback you give us, and that is how we have managed to stay as a strong National Research and Education Network (NREN) community,” said Nicholas Mbonimpa, CEO of RENU, in his opening remarks.
Dr. Francis F. Tusubira, the Guest of Honour, emphasized the need for forward-thinking in his speech: “As ICT Directors, we need to think a lot about the future to excite the younger teams that are coming up. We need to change our mindset and liberate ourselves from the confines of technology to solutions that speak directly to the people.”
The event featured various presentations and discussions by experts highlighting the latest developments and best practices in ICT for education and research institutions. Godfrey Sserwamukoko, General Manager of Raxio Data Centre, delivered an insightful presentation on colocation and how educational and research institutions can harness the power of a Tier III certified carrier and cloud-neutral data center.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) report, higher education institutions produce around 300 petabytes of data yearly. This data comes from various sources, including research activities, student information systems, learning management systems, and other academic and administrative processes. The importance of research repositories within higher education institutions underscores the need for effective data management and accessibility, according to expert consultants’ 2024 predictions on emerging trends in higher education.
Raxio Data Centre is committed to supporting industries facing complex ICT and regulatory challenges with the state-of-the-art technological infrastructure needed to transform their businesses. Raxio’s commitment to digital transformation spans multiple sectors, including education and research, which generate large volumes of data as digital transformation accelerates. Such data must be stored and processed optimally in a state-of-the-art facility.
Godfrey remarked, “Raxio Data Centre is the only Tier III certified facility in the country that operates carrier-neutral and cloud-neutral. It has best-in-class equipment and the capacity to house 400 racks at full capacity, allowing businesses to scale up based on their rack space requirements.”
He continued, “We ensure 99.982% uptime via a fully redundant and concurrently maintainable design offering 2N+1 design on power, cooling, connectivity, space, and 24/7 CCTV monitoring, in addition to 7 layers of onsite physical security between the entrance and servers. With over 14 connectivity providers/carriers in the data hall, customers can connect and choose from various carriers.”
Godfrey encouraged education and research institutions to approach their networks from a business continuity perspective and explore the opportunities offered by the advanced technological infrastructure of a Tier III data center to address mission-critical needs for data storage, business continuity, and disaster recovery.
“You want to be in a situation where the internet is a minimum requirement for academic institutions to compete on a global stage because everything runs online. You can also leverage technology to support research,” said Prof. Madara Ogot, CEO Ubuntunet Alliance.
Andrew Otim, Head of Strategy at the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), emphasized UCC’s role in collaborating with ICT sector players. “Convenient, faster, affordable, integrated solutions are what is needed from the players to make a difference, and UCC is doing what it takes to provide a dynamic regulatory framework to facilitate this,” he remarked.
The RENU ICT Directors Forum was attended by ICT directors from education and research institutions and regional and international IT infrastructure providers. Other sponsors included AWS, Mantra Technologies, Renu Mesh, Redington, Simplifi Networks, Gold Star Insurance, Soliton Telmec, Raridali Company Limited, and Flexoptix.
