Global energy company ENGIE has been selected for the operation and maintenance of the Orange Services Group's datacentre in Abidjan, for a five-year contract that will start early June 2019.

According to the French telecommunications firm, its datacentre, built by the Orange Service Group (GOS), is one of only a few in West Africa that complies with the Level IV classification and has a power capacity of 1.3MW.

According to this classification, it has the required redundancies to ensure continuity of service in all circumstances.

The perimeter of the contract includes preventive maintenance of the multi-technical lots of the datacentre buildings, including the electrical substations, high voltage, cooling and air conditioning, Central Management Technology, fire alarm systems, security and control, video surveillance and access control.

The companies say the contract reflects ENGIE's ambition to accelerate its development in energy services in West and Central Africa and "to become one of the leaders in energy efficiency, installation and maintenance services in Africa."

Built on the Free Zone of Grand-Bassam, located 40km from Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d'Ivoire, the building has a floor area of 1 450 m² including a 420 m² computer room.

"This next-generation datacentre has a power capacity of 1.3 MW and a design which is oriented towards reliability and energy optimisation of data storage. The centre represents a strategic infrastructure for Orange in West Africa and primarily hosts Orange's service platforms of its Middle East - Africa subsidiaries but it is also a colocation space for B-to-B customers' needs in this region," reads a statement issued by the Orange Services Group.