MainOne chooses Minkels to boost W’African data centre market

Minkels, part of the publicly traded company Legrand has been chosen as data center supplier for West African connectivity and data center solutions company, MainOne.

MainOne repositioned Africa with its undersea fibre optic cable connecting West Africa to Europe and the construction of West Africa’s largest commercial Tier III+ Data Center, MDXi.

MainOne observed a strong market demand for a world class, carrier-neutral co-location data center in Nigeria in 2012.

According to Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Ms. Funke Opeke, the market demand rapidly outstripped the co-location space in “our landing station and necessitated the construction of a purpose built Tier III facility with 600 rack capacity. We developed the Lekki data center (MDXi) over 24 months and launched in January 2015 to keep up with customer demand.”

MainOne, in search of best of breed solutions, conducted a global search for a more flexible Cold Aisle Containment System (CAC) to accommodate the various needs of their global customers with racks of varying widths and heights.

“We considered manufacturing in China to meet our specifications and also direct purchase from various Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). A global evaluation followed: all top industry players, custom CAC vendors and local manufacturers were evaluated to provide racks, Cold Aisle Containment, PDUs and accessories for customers at our data center. Minkels met our requirement to provide a Cold Aisle Containment solution: flexible concerning rack width and height, able to accommodate a free standing 47U solution, and lend itself to caging. In addition, Minkels has the technical ability to understand our requirements and quickly make custom engineering modifications based on experience with many of our global customers,” she stated.

MainOne said it has successfully deployed the Cold Aisle Containment solution and custom support frames to meet the requirements of their international co-location customers who will be deploying their server racks shortly.

“As the premier Data Center in West Africa, it is important we lead in innovation, professionalism and delivery of world-class solutions. Our partnership with Minkels ensures our ability to respond to customers with different technical requirements and volumes.”