Nov 14, 2008 : Vodacom Opens Johannesburg Facility

📅 November 14, 2008 - South African network provider Vodacom Business (vodacom.co.za/business/) announced on Friday it has launched its new 100 million South African rand (US$9.7 million) data center in Johannesburg.
The 3,281 square-foot facility has the capacity to host up to 20,000 dedicated client servers or 650,000 virtual machines. Vodacom says it will offer a range of hosting services out of the facility, including basic web hosting, server colocation, dedicated hosting, managed storage and managed backups."IT operations are a crucial aspect of any company's operations," says Wally Beelders, executive director of Vodacom Business. "One of the main concerns is business continuity; companies rely on their information systems to run their operations. If a system becomes unavailable, company operations may be impaired or stopped completely. Our new data center will ensure that a company can continue to run without having to worry about their IT infrastructure."South Africa has quickly become a popular location for data center and research center builds. In June, IBM opened its new $120 million Africa Innovation Center in Johannesburg, which showcases cloud computing, web 2.0 technologies, service-oriented architecture, systems management, next-generation banking systems and environmentally friendly computing designs.Beelders says the Vodacom Business Data Centre is suitable for all business types, catering to "large corporates with vast IT infrastructure needs, to small businesses."The data center environment can be used as a primary facility or a disaster recovery site. The site offers a range of security and reliability features, including biometric security systems, video surveillance, on-site security officers and surplus power, and heating ventilation and air conditioning.The facility is built and designed on an N + N principle. Cabling to all secure cabinets consists of 10GB Copper, 10GB Multimode Optic Fiber and 10GB Single Mode Fiber, preventing end users from experiencing bandwidth bottlenecks.Classified as a Tier 4 data center, Vodacom Business Data Centre is designed to host mission critical computer systems, with fully redundant subsystems and compartmentalized security zones controlled by biometric access control methods. Meanwhile, the building managements systems use both the Netbotz and SCADA BMS technologies.The data center also offers office environments for all Vodacom Business hosting customers, as well as a boardroom that includes a video conferencing infrastructure.A division of South African telecom Vodacom (vodacom.co.za), Vodacom Business provides a range of services, including access, managed network, converged application and managed hosting.