Data Centre to cut costs

Tue, 27 Jun 2017 14:21:11 +0000

By MUKOSELA KASALWE

THE construction of the Data Centre will reduce the cost for businesses and enterprises to invest in costly data centres but pay a reasonable fee for hosting their services on the platform, says Minister of Transport and Communications Brian Mushimba.

Mr. Mushimba said the establishing of a data centre which awaits commissioning would reduce the cost of data services for business houses and enterprises who would pay a minimal fee for being on the platform and they would focus on their core business.

In a ministerial statement to Parliament recently, the minister said Government had completed the construction of a tier three National Data Centre which would provide cloud services to Government and business entities at commercial rates for data storage, management and analysis.

He said an information and communication technology Centre of Excellence had also been established to provide relevant ICT training and skills.

“The construction of the Data Centre is meant for businesses and enterprises not to invest in costly data centres but pay a reasonable fee for hosting services while they focus on their core business. This Data Centre is now awaiting commissioning,” he said.

Mr. Mushimba said ICT services had become an integral part of everyday life and that Government had procured 1,009 bigger and taller communication towers in the second phase for better signal strength based on a nationwide survey aimed at improving network coverage in the country.

He said in order to support decentralisation and effective accountability of public funds, a revenue collection system had been installed in 103 local authorities.

Mr. Mushimba who is Kankoyo PF MP said Government was implementing the Treasury Single Account as a measure of improving financial prudence so that the State does not borrow its own money banked in various commercial banks and that the account would be used to make payments directly to suppliers.