Robi invests $13m to open country’s first private tier-IV data centre

Telecom operator Robi Axiata has launched Bangladesh's first commercial Tier-IV data centre in a move to expand its portfolio and cater to the increasing need for data storage driven by surging internet usage amid digitalisation of services.

The subsidiary of Axiata Group, which operates in 10 countries, spent $13 million to establish the data centre at the Sheikh Hasina Software Technology Park in Jashore.

This marks the third data centre under the group's portfolio across Asia, with the other two being located in Sri Lanka and Nepal.

The investment comes as Robi, which now brands itself as a technology company instead of a telecommunications company, looks to strategically diversify its offerings with a shift towards digital services.

It has already established three subsidiaries: startup investment firm r-Ventures, and IT and IT-enabled service providers Red.Digital and Axentec, under which the data centre called Cypher was built.

It received "Tier-IV Certification of Design Documents" from "Uptime Institute". The certification signifies that a data centre's infrastructure design meets the highest standards for fault tolerance and redundancy. This ensures maximum reliability and availability, minimising the risk of downtime for critical operations.

Cypher is backed by a "2N+1" power control system, which refers to a redundancy configuration to ensure uninterrupted power supply through redundant power supply connections coming from two substations providing power at 11 kilovolts each.

For uninterrupted power, it also has 30 minutes of IPS battery backup equipped with an AI-based modular cooling system.

Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory officer of Robi Axiata, said they chose Jashore as the location for the data centre because of the low land rent and flexible facilities provided by the park.

Most importantly, Jashore is less prone to seismic activity and floods, guaranteeing minimal risk to operations even when hit by natural disasters, he said.

Robi is also pledging an "unparalleled uptime guarantee of 99.995 percent", coupled with security measures of the highest grade, such as biometric access control and round-the-clock surveillance, safeguarding against physical and cyber threats.

"So, banks, financial institutions, and other organisations can confidently entrust their data to our data centre. Our facility ensures the utmost safety and protection for sensitive information," Alam said.

The data centre was inaugurated by State Minister for Telecom and ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Friday.

Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority Managing Director GSM Jafarullah, Robi CEO Rajeev Sethi and Axentec CEO Adil Hossain Noble were present.

Palak said Axentec and Robi's initiative set a ground-breaking precedent for others to follow.

Private capital is increasingly being directed towards the establishment of data centres in Bangladesh to meet the escalating need for storing, processing and managing data.

Domestic investors are actively involved in establishing these centres while foreign investment is also flowing into the sector.

Overall, private, public, and international entities have already invested or are in the process of investing more than Tk 5,200 crore, with half of this amount originating from sources overseas.