The newly-approved provisions of the Electronic Communications (EC) Act will reshape the telecommunications landscape, deputy minister of communications Roy Padayachie told industry representatives at the inauguration of a Business Connexion (BCX) tier four data centre, in Midrand, yesterday.
Padayachie said within six months of the EC Act`s promulgation, SA could look forward to affordable access to international bandwidth and local loop unbundling, in line with the government`s goal of reducing communication costs by a factor of 10.
He said this is in line with a pro-competition regulatory regime, aimed at managing the liberalisation of the ICT sector and ensuring universality and affordability of ICT services in SA, but conceded no date had been fixed for the EC Act`s enactment.
Emphasising the importance of public-private collaboration in developing the local ICT industry, Padayachie praised BCX`s R143 million data centre investment. He called on other companies to follow its example to help SA improve its competitive position in the increasingly globalised economy.
Mike Sewell, group executive for outsourcing at BCX, welcomed government`s initiatives and said the industry eagerly awaited the changes promised by the EC Act.
Offshore market
"We believe the new data centre will play an important role in making SA competitive, particularly in the international outsourcing arena, which is dependent on cheaper and better access to international bandwidth," he said.
Sewell is on record as saying BCX hopes the data centre will attract the offshore market through competitive pricing due to lower real-estate and labour costs, as well as innovative technology and design.
BCX says construction of the twinned 1 000-square-metre data centres remains on track for opening for business in October this year.
"What the new-age CIO wants is the reliable delivery of services that improve business as technology infrastructure becomes increasingly commoditised and heads towards becoming an on-demand utility," says Sewell.
According to Sewell, companies will eventually buy processing power and storage in the same way as they buy electricity.
As a tier four facility, the centre conforms to Gartner-approved standards. It features redundant systems for power and cooling, multiple distribution paths, biometric access control, multiple fire detection and extinguishing systems, water-cooled rack systems, and fibre connectivity with a redundant backbone.
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