Neotel today officially launched its new data center at its premises in Midrand, with the aim of opening a second one in Cape Town in the next few months.<\/p>\n
“Neotel is committed to introducing more services to the market to add even further value to our customers,” says Stefano Mattiello, chief sales and customer service officer at Neotel. “The data center is just one more step in the direction of managed services.”<\/p>\n
According to Mattiello, it is this urge to reduce costs as well as the need to move towards more energy efficient methods that drives growth in data center usage. “Data centers are evolving and advancing by focusing mostly around power efficiencies and green initiatives,” he says. <\/p>\n
This includes the possible rise of carbon taxing and power consumption costs which are expected to increase globally by up to 60 percent. “These market forces are all driving innovative designs and solutions around data center construction and operations locally and abroad,” he adds. <\/p>\n
“The Neotel data center is an example of a fresh new approach in the South African market – our data centers are modular in design, with high energy efficient technologies allowing the highest data center cooling density,” says Rajeev Sinha, head of product and solutions at Neotel. <\/p>\n
This is particularly important in the South African context following severe electricity shortages last year as well as Eskom’s latest proposed price hikes. <\/p>\n
Sinha says energy efficiency issues and solutions in the data center include a design that minimizes power overheads thereby driving power efficiencies all the way to the power socket. “Also improved cooling techniques such as water chilled and hot row cold row methods, will further limit excess power utilization.”<\/p>\n
Sinha advises companies to only host with professionals, focusing strongly on items such as a proactive SLA as well as the financial viability and health of the business. “Make sure you check the data center, facilities, and network before signing any agreements,” he says.<\/p>\n
Neotel is however not the only company which launched a new data center recently. Vodacom Business unveiled their state-of-the-art data center recently, promising tier 4 quality hosting to clients.<\/p>\n
Teraco also launched their first vendor neutral data center in Cape Town this year, with another one to follow in Johannesburg. According to Teraco MD Lex van Wyk there is already strong demand for their hosting services, something which they expect to continue in future.<\/p>\n