The data centre will provide cloud services, colocation and hosting to deal with business applications, and will be built by the Ministry of Innovation & Technology. The report said it will be the first nationally hosted cloud facility.
The facility is due to serve as the main data centre for the electronic government system where all the data processing and storage happens.
Addis Fortune reported that the launch of the facility is scheduled to take a year, with the construction taking shape in three parts.
The first part will be constructing the facility; the second will be deploying the data centre facility; and the third will be deploying cloud infrastructure.
The first phase of the construction will include entertainment space, cafeteria, dormitories, a disaster recovery site and green areas.
The facility will include electric power, efficient cooling, data centre environment monitoring, data centre safety, physical security, and network and security operating centres.
Ahead of building the data centre, the Ministry has drafted a Personal Data Protection Proclamation, to address the gap in data protection. It has been sent to the Council of Ministers for approval.
The data centre is expected to be located at the ICT Park, which is located close to Bole Lemi Industrial Park in Ethiopia.
The park is the home of many private operators such as ZTW, Techno Mobile and Security Innovation Network, among others, according to reports.
Ahmedin Mohammed (PhD), state minister for Innovation & Technology revealed that although the country has many data centres that are mainly institutional-based, both on the private sector and the government side, this facility is set to be different.
