The Paratus Group has announced it is ready to open its datacentre in Lusaka, Zambia.

The company says COVID-19 has greatly accelerated the pace of reliance upon unlimited and quality internet connections.

It quotes DT Global, referring to the 2020 World Bank study of 10 000 enterprises, including micro, small, and medium-sized businesses in 51 emerging and developing economies, which states that ‘around half of private firms had significantly ramped up their use of the internet to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19.’

Paratus Group says that with this increased shift to working in the digital data space, business data security is compromised, “and this is why shifting to an off-site datacentre is the safest solution when safeguarding company information.”

Barney Harmse, Group CEO for Paratus says, “Our datacentre rollout is just the next phase in supplying customers with the best possible services. When COVID first hit our continent, we had already put services in place to meet their changing needs, so they could always confidently connect and access their data securely. With two operational datacentres in Angola and the upcoming launch of our latest datacentre in Zambia, we have the experience to offer services to businesses and multi-nationals in the region, giving them access to the latest best technology and 24/7 security.”

The Paratus datacentre in Angola has been in operation since 2019.

Flavio Bressan, Director of Marketing in Angola says, “We have been running a well-equipped datacentre for the past two years. During this time, we have been able to identify, discuss and fix issues; introduce new products; measure our performance; audit our customers; and be able to offer everything businesses need to run an entirely secure off-site business.”

The datacentre in Zambia is scheduled to open in July. MD of Paratus Zambia, Marius van Vuuren is confident about its success. “We have really pushed the boundaries for this DC, and we have ticked every box of requirements and assurances. We will store and protect client data 24/7; house and physically protect all equipment and computer systems; handle the off-site migration; and offer an array of add-on services and features.”

The company has also announced the pending launch of a datacentre in Namibia.

MD of Paratus Namibia, Andrew Hall says, “Such is the demand that, despite being in the construction stages, we have already signed up a large number of tenants. This is testament to their confidence in Paratus providing them with total data security.” The datacentre in Namibia will be Tier 3 by design and will incorporate green building design elements, to reduce environmental impact.