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Tag: Rack Centre

  • Rack Centre to deepen local IT skills

    Rack Centre to deepen local IT skills

    Carrier and cloud neutral data centre, Rack Centre, has stated its commitment to deepen local content in the information technology (IT) sector.

    As a demonstration of this commitment, it has launched a sustainability initiative to train artisans from its host community to be involved in the building of LGS2, a new best-in-class data centre in Lagos, Nigeria.

    The empowerment initiative, which is in line with Rack Centre’s commitment to sustainable development and social impact, will provide artisans with the skills and training they need to work on the construction of LGS2 and empower them to be involved in world-class construction projects.

    The programme will engage carpenters, masons, plumbers amongst others and it will cover a wide range of topics such as safety, construction techniques, and the use of specialized equipment.

    Chief Operating Officer of Rack Centre, Ezekiel Egboye, said: “We are committed to supporting the sustainable development of our host communities.”

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     This initiative is a great way to provide local artisans with the skills and training they need to work on the construction of LGS2, while also creating jobs and opportunities for community members.

    It will also provide artisans with the opportunity to gain valuable experience working on a major construction project, thereby making them more competitive in the job market and increasing their earning potential.”

     The training program is expected to start in October 2023 and will run for the next nine months.

    Upon completion of the programme, the artisans will be awarded certificates and will be eligible to work on the construction of LGS2. Upon completion, the new build will help expand the company’s capacity tenfold and consolidate its leadership as a major digital infrastructure hub in West Africa.

    The new build will enhance and broaden the capacity of the company to serve more clients in the country. Located in Oregun, the heart of Ikeja, with easy access to the main commercial areas of Lagos, the new data centre is situated on a 20,000 square metres green field site and sits at over 30 meters above sea level. With this expansion, Rack Centre would have an increased IT load of 13.5MW in its Lagos facility.

    Rack Centre’s rich ecosystem includes 65 telecommunication carriers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), global Tier 1 networks, and pan Africa international carriers, including direct interconnections to all major subsea cables serving the South Atlantic Coast of Africa including Equiano and in the foreseeable future 2Africa, and every country on the Atlantic coast of Africa.

  • Rack Centre wins Next Bulls Award at 2023 Top 25 CEOs Awards

    Rack Centre wins Next Bulls Award at 2023 Top 25 CEOs Awards

    Rack Centre, West Africa’s Best-connected Carrier and Cloud neutral data centre has won the Next Bulls Award category at the 2023 edition of the Top 25 CEOs Awards.

    The ceremony took place at the upscale Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, over the weekend.

    The Top 25 CEOs Award is organised by BusinessDay Media Limited and the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). The annual awards have served as a capital market bellwether used in identifying the best performing chief executive officers and stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as well as leading privately-held companies.

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    The award recognises leaders of public and private companies who have created sustainable alpha- generating value for their shareholders through their strategic priorities, operating efficiencies, organisational values, and market engagement activities.

    Rack Centre won the award based on its impressive growth, market reputation, regulatory compliance, and world-class corporate values. Under the visionary leadership of its Group CEO, Jasper Lankhorst, the company has grown steadily, attracting broad positive interest from industry analysts.

  • Rack Centre wins MEA Datacloud Award

    Africa’s premium Tier III certified colocation data centre services provider, Rack Centre, has emerged the winner of Excellence in Regional Data Centre Middle East and Africa.

    This is the second year the firm is clinching the coveted award at the 2019 Datacloud Awards in Monaco.

    In selecting Rack Centre for the award, the panel of judges took into account its outstanding ecosystem of robust and direct connectivity with over 35 carriers and five undersea cables; its ability to scale operations through its modular nature and its low proven Power Utilisation Effectiveness (PUE) despite a challenging climatic and infrastructural environment.

    The judges also considered the firm’s service delivery, its outstanding customer satisfaction, achievement of 100 per cent uptime since inception, and its CloudonGroundTM that offers a locally hosted and world class cloud ecosystem to Nigeria and sub Saharan Africa.

    In his reaction, the Managing Director of Rack Centre, Dr Ayotunde Coker, said: “We are truly honoured, delighted and humbled at the award, and thank the judges for recognising Rack Centre for excellence in Middle East and Africa.  A great recognition indeed from highly respected global leaders in the industry, and the leading global industry event in Monaco.”

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    Held in Monaco, the Datacloud Global Award, organised by BroadGroup, publisher of the UK based Data Economy recognisesd teams, products, innovations, initiatives and projects in the global IT industry.

    Chairman of Broadgroup, Phillip Low, said the awards help to define a new era in the IT infrastructure market and acknowledges the inspirational people, innovation and excellence in the data centre, cloud and edge eco-system, and reflect the tremendous success and achievements in diversity, innovation and excellence.

    The winners were selected by judges comprising of independent panels of leading professionals from the industry who looked particularly for companies and individuals with evidences of success in performance, innovation in delivering services and high levels of industry’s excellence.

  • Rack Centre chief speaks at FinTech confab

    The Managing Director, Rack Centre, Dr Ayotunde Coker, will be joining an array of technological and business experts at this year’s Africa Fintech Summit holding in Lagos. He will deliver a keynote speech on the Role of Cloud and Data Services in the Fintech Ecosystems on November 8.

    Dr Coker leads Africa’s premium Tier III Constructed Facility certified carrier neutral colocation data centre, with over 30 years industry experience working with international firms across Europe, US, Asia and Africa. A former Group Chief Information Officer with Access Bank in Nigeria, he was Digital Services Director for Egg Bank in the UK, Europe’s first pure play Internet Bank 15 years ago and has consulted for global banks such as ABN Amro, UBS, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan.  He asserts that Fintech has been around since his pioneering work at Egg Bank.

  • Rack Centre achieves ISO 22301:2012

    Africa’s premium colocation Data Centre, Rack Centre, has achieved the ISO 22301:2012, a business continuity management certification, joining an elite number of data centre in the world to attain such a feat.

    Awarded by the globally recognised British Standard Institute (BSI), the certification is an attestation that the firm has evolved a robust and holistic system for business continuity management.

    The ISO 22301:2012 is designed to protect a business from threats to business continuity and proactively put plans in place ahead of time to prevent such threats impacting on the smooth running of that business or to keep the business running during crises and improve recovery time.

    The Managing Director BSI Middle East and Africa, Theuns Kotzé, said: “In today’s volatile world, understanding what it takes to ensure the survival and prosperity of an organisation can be more challenging than ever. By achieving ISO 22301:2012 Certification for Business Continuity Management, Rack Centre demonstrates its commitment to improve information resilience and minimize the operational impact of disruptive incidents. On behalf of BSI, I would like to congratulate Rack Centre for achieving ISO 22301:2012 certification and for your ongoing commitment to continual improvement.”

    Reacting to the feat, Managing Director, Rack Centre, Ayotunde Coker, said this is a key milestone for the firm and underpins management’s commitment to excellence and business continuity.

    To obtain the certification, Rack Centre partnered with Deloitte, the internationally recognised professional services firm which provided consulting, implementation and certification services. Reacting to the award, Deloitte said:  “We understand that this marks a turning point in Rack Centre’s journey in maintaining the competitive edge and customer’s delight. It had been a tremendous learning experience for us all and it is heart-warming to see all the hard work resulting in this success.’’

  • Rack Centre achieves ISO 22301:2012

    Africa’s premium colocation data centre, Rack Centre, has achieved ISO 22301:2012, a business continuity management certification, joining an elite number of data centres in the world to attain such a feat.

    Awarded by the globally recognised British Standard Institute (BSI), the certification is an attestation that the firm has evolved a robust and holistic system for business continuity management.

    The ISO 22301:2012 is designed to protect a business from threats to business continuity and proactively put plans in place ahead of time to prevent such threats impacting on the smooth running of that business or to keep the business running during crises and improve recovery time.

    The Managing Director BSI Middle East and Africa, Theuns Kotzé, said: “In today’s volatile world, understanding what it takes to ensure the survival and prosperity of an organisation can be more challenging than ever. By achieving ISO 22301:2012 Certification for Business Continuity Management, Rack Centre demonstrates its commitment to improve information resilience and minimise the operational impact of disruptive incidents. On behalf of BSI, I would like to congratulate Rack Centre for achieving ISO 22301:2012 certification and for your ongoing commitment to continual improvement.”

     

     

     

  • LCCI: why Rack Centre won our award

    The Director, Advocacy & Enterprise Development, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr Vincent Nwani, has said the group recognised Rack Centre for its contributions to the growth of the nation’s economy through its data centre.

    Speaking during the presentation of Local Content in ICT Sector Award to the firm in Lagos, yesterday, he said the investment of the firm in data centre has not only created jobs but has saved the country of capital flight through depletion of the nation’s foreign exchange (forex)

    He said: “Rack Centre has made sustained and dedicated commitment to the Nigerian’s economy by its huge investment in data centre and network connectivity thereby saving the Nigerian’s economy millions of forex on an annual basis. It has also provided the much needed jobs for the youth while also enhancing data security and reliability for corporations across the African continent.

    “We are very proud of Rack Centre and LCCI in its 2018 Commerce and Industry Awards; we recognise and celebrate the company for its value addition to the Nigerian economy.”

    Also speaking, LCCI Director-General, Mr. Muda Yusuf, said the rationale for the awards which is in its fifth edition, is to recognise, celebrate and promote private and public institutions that have exhibited the core values of best business practices, business sustainability and have positively impacted the society.

    LCCI said the award to Rack Centre was “an outcome of painstaking selection process from numerous entries received for the award category and backed by feedback from industry’s market intelligence’’.
    Managing Director, Rack Centre, Mr Ayotunde Coker said: “We are delighted and honoured to win this award from the LCCI, a great business institution in Nigeria.

    “Rack Centre, which is Africa’s Premium Tier III certified data centre, is developing world class technology so that businesses do not have to host their data abroad, or spend scarce resources building data centres locally. “Our CloudonGroundTMoffering brings a comprehensive range of cloud services to our doorsteps, providing access to a comprehensive range of computing and network interconnect services locally.”

  • Rack Centre emerges finalist in UK data centre awards

    Africa’s premium data centre, Rack Centre, has for the second year, been announced as a finalist in two categories in this year’s Data Centre Solutions (DCS) Awards in the United Kingdom (UK).

    The finalist categories are ‘Excellence in Data Centre Services Award’ and ‘Data Centre Hosting/co-location Supplier of the Year’.

    These are global recognition of Rack Centre’s leadership and innovation in the data centre industry and ground breaking local cloud hosting ecosystem known as CloundonGround.

    The DCS awards are designed to reward the product designers, manufacturers, suppliers and providers of data centre arena.

    Speaking on the feat, the Managing Director of Rack Centre, Ayotunde Coker, said: “It is great news that Rack Centre’s dedication to significantly raise the quality threshold for the African data centre industry and our innovation in the local cloud ecosystem through our cloudonground cloud exchange has been acknowledged by the data centre industry. We are delighted to have been recognised; reaching the finalist shortlist is a great achievement, and we now hope to be voted as winner in at least one of the categories, surpassing our unprecedented runners up last year which was a first for any data centre colocation and cloud company in Africa.”

    Voting has started and will close on May 11. Voting is open for all using a business email, address, but email domains, such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo are not accepted and will be annulled for voting.

  • Rack Centre: Nigerian firms meeting global standards

    The Managing Director, Rack Centre, Mr. Ayotunde Coker, has said Nigeria information technology firms are meeting global standards and will continue to do so.

    Coker, who was reacting to the firm’s attainment of the Tier III Tier Certification of Constructed Facility (TCCF) from the Uptime Institute, joining the elite data centres in the world to be certified and the first in the West African sub-region, said the firm will continue to strive to be the leader in data center service provider in the country.

    He said: “We are delighted that Rack Centre has achieved this certification by such a respected and distinguished global body as the Uptime Institute.  We are passionate that we have attained one of the highest standards and achieving the Uptime Institute Tier III TCCF certification validates this, and demonstrates to our existing and future customers, that here in Nigeria, we are meeting the highest standards at the global level.  Rack Centre is the most connected Tier III certified and truly carrier neutral data centre in Africa.  We are proud of this achievement.”

    Uptime Institute, through its Managing Director, EMEA, Mr Phil Collerton, commended Rack Centre for being the first facility to be awarded the Uptime Tier III TCCF certification in Nigeria. He said: “The certification clearly demonstrates Rack Centre’s commitment to its customers and its unwavering focus on not only designing, but also building a world class facility that meets the most demanding requirements. This data centre will continue to underpin the region’s economic development as more businesses and people join the digital ecosystem while also strengthening Rack Centres’ position as a highly resilient infrastructure hub for connectivity partners and end customers in the region.”

    Rack Centre, the sub-Sahara Africa’s premium data centre and colocation services provider. The TCCF certification was achieved after a thorough forensic assessment of all aspects of Rack Centre’s facilities and operations by Uptime Institute experts team from the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK).

    Uptime Institute is the global authority for data centre certification through its Tier Certification framework and the standard it sets is recognised as the global benchmark for quality and international best practices in data centre design, construction and operations.  This certification, therefore, demonstrates that Rack Centre facility and all its data centre elements are built as per the original Tier III design and engineering specifications and validates that it is meeting the defined availability of concurrent maintainability.

    Rack Centre is based in Oregun, Lagos, Nigeria and owned by Jagal, a Nigerian conglomerate holding that operates leading energy businesses and manages a diverse portfolio of investments is a state of the art data centre offering carrier neutral colocation services and provides over 6000 sqm (65,000sqft) of energy efficient and secure centre.

  • Web4Africa launches services at Rack Centre’s data centre

    Pan African web hosting company, Web4Africa, has launched its web hosting services in Rack Centre, the Nigeria carrier neutral premium data centre colocation company in a move it said will enable to serve its customers in the West African sub-region more efficiently.

    Accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and also the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NiRA), and founded in 2002, Web4Africa offers web hosting, virtual private server (VPS) hosting, domain names and related services to clients worldwide.

    With presence in Rack Centre, Web4Africa, was the first hosting company to offer web services physically from Nigeria from a Tier III data centre with comprehensive global connectivity.

    Speaking on the development, the Managing Director of Web4Africa, Mr Oluniyi Ajao said: “Rack Centre has provided a cost-effective carrier-neutral environment with 100 per cent uptime since launch and the hosting of the internet point of Nigeria at Rack Centre which allows several internet service providers and network operators to exchange traffic making it a perfect location for our West African network point-of-presence.”

    The Managing Director of Rack Centre, Mr Ayotunde Coker, lauded the move to Rack Centre by Web4Africa. He said: “Web4Africa is a key player in delivering local Cloud services hosted here in Nigeria, delivered in Nigeria.  This is a key component of Rack Centre Cloud on Ground marketplace for cloud based services.  Rack Centre provides Web4Africa the most connected data centre in West Africa, and the ideal geophysical location to provide its services, not only within Nigeria, but across all of West Africa”

    Rack Centre is 100 per cent owned by Jagal, a Nigerian conglomerate holding that operates leading energy businesses and manages a diverse portfolio of investments. Rack Centre, is a state-of-the-art, Tier III Design Certified datacentre offering carrier-neutral colocation services.  It is the most connected in West Africa, offering 16 major carriers in the country and direct connection to all undersea cables serving the South Atlantic Coast of Africa.  Its Cloud on Ground services offers a locally hosted cloud marketplace. Colocating within Rack Centre allows companies to avoid fixed infrastructure investments and to leave the growing complexity of managing power and environmental issues to specialists.