With the advent of the internet, a humongous amount of data is generated by individuals, businesses, organisations and government on daily basis. Of concern to all, is the security of these data from being stolen, as well as safeguarding them from getting lost. I met with Tunde Coker, CEO, Rack Center recently, and had a fruitful and enlightening interview session with him on what a Data Center is and why it is so important and other issues relating to data.
CFA: The last time we had this conversation was 4 years ago, when this show, (Tech Trends on Channels Television), just started. Since then, how has the IT industry evolved?
Tunde: Fantastically, globally and locally in Nigeria, we’ve had quite a surprising takeoff of Blockchain in real applications. In Nigeria, the Broadband penetration has actually reached the 30%, just exceeded it slightly, target, which is fantastic news because, that underpins, really, the delivery of technology out there to the end point, the users, the consumers.The development of the tech ecosystem in Nigeria has really been quite remarkable. Nigeria is now moving towards the highest, if not, the second highest, at least with respect to South Africa and Kenya, with respect to inward direct investment for technology Startups. Nigeria is increasingly known for its technological capabilities and not just oil and gas. Tremendous progress in the last 5 years, but you know tremendous progress doesn’t mean we are there yet. There’s a lot that we can do still. There’s a lot of opportunity for technology in Nigeria.
CFA: I know that at the center of all this is having the right data center infrastructure. Before we go into all of that, can you explain to us, what a Data Center is and why it is important in today’s world?
Tunde: A Data Center, is an environment that is really very sophisticated environment for hosting IT Systems. You have to have the Servers that run all of these applications somewhere and they have to be in a very reliable place. They have to be in a place that is climatically controlled at very specific temperature and humidity; else, these Systems will not perform optimally, or, they actually, even, crash. You have to have 100% power.
Watch the full interview here
