AccessKenya is not new in Mombasa, the corporate ISP and solutions provider owns and operates a 450-kilometre Carrier Ethernet Fiber Optic Network in Nairobi and Mombasa which connects over 550 commercial buildings.
The firm is also connecting Kenya’s 47 counties to its fiber and wireless networks, a project it says will take it two years. It recently said it will invest over Sh35 million to connect ten counties to its national network this year.
Just why did Access Kenya launch a data centre in Mombasa Kenya’s AccessKenya Group Monday?
Increasing demand
According to AccessKenya’s Chief Technology Officer, Raymond Macharia, the pre-existing facility had undergone an upgrade in response to increased demand, with the firm investing an initial sum of Sh8 million to deploy new equipment and additional space.
The total project cost is envisaged at more than Sh25 million to complete phase two of the upgrade, through to 2014.
“We are looking at opportunities in the provision of collocation services to our Mombasa clients as well as satisfying both our own business continuity needs and those of our Nairobi based clientele”, he said.
Countrywide expansion
The firm’s new Data Center in Mombasa will bolster AccessKenya’s enhanced expansion of its firm’s metropolitan and fiber optic network across the country.
It will also help AccessKenya to offer more high availability services such as replication of critical applications for customers from multiple locations.
Offsite backup
According to the firm, clients will thus benefit from the continuity of service from a secondary site that would take over seamlessly in the event of a failure of the primary site meaning that they would not experience any outage.
Group Managing Director, Jonathan Somen disclosed that the company’s focus would remain selling internet to corporate and enterprise clients, “while also layering on IT solutions, Cloud, data backup and MPLS services”, he said.