routik:

An average hotel in Abuja have good security more than some shopping malls in Nigeria. Especially in this era of BH.
I may not be right as well, I am just talking from the perspective of an entrepreneur who is operating in a survival mode.

Thats cool.have you seen the link samir kept on his comment? it has valuable information i think you will be interested in

for the record...i think this thread is already started as requested by@foto_lord... guyz i think u shld just keep it coming and make it more formal and well formatted/ we need this breeze of information sharing in naija among tech guyz to truly grow in knowledge...so i look forward to this thread growing with more knowledge, and synergy of minds. thanks

olasquare: for the record...i think this thread is already started as requested by@foto_lord... guyz i think u shld just keep it coming and make it more formal and well formatted/ we need this breeze of information sharing in naija among tech guyz to truly grow in knowledge...so i look forward to this thread growing with more knowledge, and synergy of minds. thanks

i will love this thread to keep going also but a lot of people don't discuss IT issues here and there are lots of experienced IT guys here which i feel we all can benefit from shared knowledge and resources.

I love what routik is doing which is sharing knowledge and asking questions. i dont know it all but i feel if we all contribute to the thread like ask question and gives answers, we should be able to expand our knowledge a lot

Sky-walker:

I love what routik is doing which is sharing knowledge and asking questions. i dont know it all but i feel if we all contribute to the thread like ask question and gives answers, we should be able to expand our knowledge a lot

Thanks for the compliment. i believe we are all here to learn, and our interest is different from that of website/software guys.
Regarding the Datacenter Topic, i was the one that made this comment

I have seen one before in Abuja. well organized and properly managed by http://www.gatewaycomms.com/

I have come to realize one fact about Network career and software career. It is not easy for a Network guy that is financially constrained to kick off in his career and Vision. why? because despite that fact he owns a laptop, he needs a home lab. and no matter how small the home lab is, it is still expensive to build compared to a software guy that can easily start his career with just a laptop.
Steady Power and affordable/Reliable Internet issue has always been a big problem to any Network/Data/ISP venture in Nigeria. This alone can discourage a lot of aspiring guys out there that want to follow this path.

Like Solomon said, a man that waits for perfect condition will never get anything done.

@samir, permit me to be using your exact words in closing my post.

The views expressed above however are mine, any errors or omissions are deeply regretted.

@routik,



Nice one !!!

@Sky-walker,

Nigeria has come far in terms of Information Technology and broadband penetration. However, we still have a long way to go. I still remember the old days of Nitel Dial-Up internet when we paid as high as N50 per min to browse the internet. We now have 4 submarine cables routing bandwidth to the country. However, the death of the national operator with its extensive equipment and reach has made mobile broadband more attractive to the GSM operators rather than deploying Fixed-Line infrastructure like ADSL, FTTH, etc Secondly, all the bandwidth is located at Lagos. Evacuating such bandwidth to the nooks and crannies of the country will require a national fiber optic broadband super highway connecting all the 36 capitals of the federation. Such a national fiber connection should be on an open access model whereby any ISP or communication provider can have access to it via the local internet exchange point and move its bandwidth. But the reverse is the case, all the major players in the sector are building their own exclusive cables and refusing to do business with the other. Why i am mention this is cause for a data center to thrive it needs multiple redundancy to fall over on in case of downtime.

samir101ng: @routik,



Nice one !!!

@Sky-walker,

Nigeria has come far in terms of Information Technology and broadband penetration. However, we still have a long way to go. I still remember the old days of Nitel Dial-Up internet when we paid as high as N50 per min to browse the internet. We now have 4 submarine cables routing bandwidth to the country. However, the death of the national operator with its extensive equipment and reach has made mobile broadband more attractive to the GSM operators rather than deploying Fixed-Line infrastructure like ADSL, FTTH, etc Secondly, all the bandwidth is located at Lagos. Evacuating such bandwidth to the nooks and crannies of the country will require a national fiber optic broadband super highway connecting all the 36 capitals of the federation. Such a national fiber connection should be on an open access model whereby any ISP or communication provider can have access to it via the local internet exchange point and move its bandwidth. But the reverse is the case, all the major players in the sector are building their own exclusive cables and refusing to do business with the other. Why i am mention this is cause for a data center to thrive it needs multiple redundancy to fall over on in case of downtime.

the highlighted part is what i feel is going to be a major problem in the future. You cant blame this companies, its the govt (i thought we had minister of Information technology). There are no laws,restrictions and no standard operating procedures setup for this companies. Now that Nitel has been crippled, this ISP companies now have the magic wand with them and can do what they like.


In my own view, i don't think Nigeria is ready for a datacenter. There are too many requirements that most be met and most companies in Nigeria are not data driven. I think what most companies in Nigeria need is a private cloud which allows them to store data offsite to a device they own which is secured somewhere only know to them. I know people who have data stored in their house here in UK.

Another idea for anybody in Nigeria who is to maybe buy online storage from reputable companies and then resell the storage to business.

You guys can look at this website. http://www.cloudelephant.com/ . i was going to buy something similar earlier this year and try and brand it for Nigeria use. thats saves a lot of headache but you have to pay subscription to which the total cost runs to roughly about £2000 a year. i changed my mind when i went to a university in Nigeria and they were storing data to skydrive and dropbox. who uses free and public online storage to store data? Most companies in Nigeria dont really care about security and auditing. i could not convince anyone on the reason why they need to stop putting confidential data on free cloud services.

i understand you said datacenter needs redundancy but have you thought about clients? how many people are willing to stop using free cloud services and use your datacenter?How many people are willing to leave thier paper and biro and store documents in electronic format? who wants to pay when he can get it free? that's the mind of an average Nigerian. I might be wrong though but this is what i encountered when i was in Nigeria during the Easter.

@moderator,

Kindly release my post as i only provided links to resources that could help our topic. Thanks.

@Sky-walker,

Nigerians use foreign based servers for their cloud services and backups because of the cost (free), up-time and reliability. The problems facing data centers in Nigeria which we enumerated earlier contribute towards this issues. But as i said earlier there is still hope. Universities like UNN, AUN Yola, ABU, UNILAG, University of Agric, Makurdi are deploying fiber solutions in their campuses in partnership with solution providers like Google, Hp, Cisco, Oracle etc By having faster connections and access to stable power, these campuses can host servers in their local communities.

Try using this add-on (flagfox)in your firefox browser. It will show you the ip-address, nslookup, who-is and other information of the server hosting the website. Some Nigerian companies are slowly deploying their websites on Nigerian based servers. MTN Business Nigeria is also helping towards that. Main One is also currently building a world class data center to help with that aspect. So, Nigeria is getting there.

i hope by the time we have datacenters in Nigeria, there should be regulations from the government to stop using foreign datacenters. Thats how its done.Data from Uk would never go outside EU and i think data from USA stays in USA.

i think datacenter business will be a big thing in Naija but will be expensive due to electricity issue in Nigeria.Multinationals will embrace it but SMB companies might not be able to afford it. i feel they will be better off buying NAS devices and setting up private cloud. i do pray Nigeria gets to the point where we have constant electricity and fast broadband services.

I will checkout flagfox. that sound like a very cool tool.

The Uk already has solid infrastructure on ground to help facilitate the flow of information. The Nigerian Internet Exchange point is slowly building the capacity http://www.ixp.net.ng/. They have a PoP in Lagos, Abuja & Port-Hacourt. Heard they are gonna open another in Kano and maybe Enugu to serve those regions. By having an exchange where ISP's and telecoms providers can peer their equipments together and have co-location for their servers is gonna help push the issue far. The second national operator (glo) should also invest more into fixed line infrastructure.

this is getting more interesting.

I have already installed the flagfox. it has great features. awesome!

How can SMEs retail Cloud Computing Services? I don't think the big players in the industry will have much interest in serving individuals/SMEs after investing so much.For the fact that they need quick ROI, they will will focus more on big establishments that will be paying them millions.

@samir101ng, you seem to have enough (buried) information. i'm suspecting you own an ISP?

routik: this is getting more interesting.

I have already installed the flagfox. it has great features. awesome!

How can SMEs retail Cloud Computing Services? I don't think the big players in the industry will have much interest in serving individuals/SMEs after investing so much.For the fact that they need quick ROI, they will will focus more on big establishments that will be paying them millions.

@samir101ng, you seem to have enough (buried) information. i'm suspecting you own an ISP?

Your welcome !!! Okay, i get your drift about targeting the lower end of the market. But the problems are multifaceted. You have a shiny new data center with all the bells & whistles, how does a subscriber in Yola or Bayelsa access his information quickly and efficiently. Now comes the problem of connectivity (bandwidth). As i mentioned earlier, the telecoms providers are still holding us hostage without an open fiber optic super highway that users can access at an affordable price. The NCC http://www.ncc.gov.ng/ is currently working on establishing such a connection so let's keep our fingers crossed.

P.S No, i don't own an ISP (sadly), just seeking knowledge.

Hmm! indeed we have a long way to go. NCC should hasten up. almost everybody is trapped in "DATA CAP" prison. we need internet freedom in Nigeria.
I recently Read about Google planning to test their "Balloon-Powered Internet". according to what i read, the solar-powered balloons will transmit signals to each other high in the sky, and eventually find their way to a user's Internet antenna on the Earth below.

For Google, the benefits are invaluable--and obvious. The more people on Earth who have access to the Internet, the more people who can make use of Google's online products--and be exposed to its vast advertising network.

It's unfortunate our Telecom industry don't think in this direction.

@samir101ng, I wouldn't mind if you can share with us some of your knowledge source in Nigeria ICT news and information.

If Nigeria is serious about vision 202 or want to be part of the top 20 economy anytime soon, The issue of Power and ICT must be taken seriously.
I wanted to have an meeting with some guys in Lagos Nigeria, It was almost impossible to have a telephone conference call facility

likeme: If Nigeria is serious about vision 202 or want to be part of the top 20 economy anytime soon, The issue of Power and ICT must be taken seriously.
I wanted to have an meeting with some guys in Lagos Nigeria, It was almost impossible to have a telephone conference call facility

Bandwidth and power are key in solving some of the connectivity issues we are having. MTN Business offers teleconferencing (MTN ePresence) and MTN Conference Call at Eko Hotel using the Cisco platform. It's gonna cost you though as these are enterprise products geared towards large corporations and SME's.

Guys whats up na? No one is talking here again. This thread has not moved since.

I will like to know how organizations in Nigeria are embracing cloud computing. I recently spoke with someone who got a job in Nigeria that requires knowledge of cloud computing only for him to be given sky-drive and dropbox to manage and configure. Now i am not dissing sky-drive but i feel companies in Nigeria should know better than to just dump file on a free service. which products are currently being in use in Naija.

Are there any managed service providers in Naija now?

Skywalker5: i hope by the time we have datacenters in Nigeria, there should be regulations from the government to stop using foreign datacenters. Thats how its done.Data from Uk would never go outside EU and i think data from USA stays in USA.

Is this a statement of fact or are you speculating? I ask because I find it hard to believe that government in the US or UK will dictate how and where private organisations store their data, especially in this post Snowden era. Google, Facebook and the likes have datacenters in various places around the globe, are you saying that all data from their, say, UK site is stored in its UK datacenter by law? Hard to believe.

I am doubtful how government regulation can help this industry in Nigeria. The core bane of cloud computing services in this country is infrastructure; bandwidth and power. But I think many SMEs - and big coys too! - are still wondering how cloud services are relevant to them and why they should consider it over the legacy systems that are in place.

Nice thread though.

Bawss1:

Is this a statement of fact or are you speculating? I ask because I find it hard to believe that government in the US or UK will dictate how and where private organisations store their data, especially in this post Snowden era. Google, Facebook and the likes have datacenters in various places around the globe, are you saying that all data from their, say, UK site is stored in its UK datacenter by law? Hard to believe.

I am doubtful how government regulation can help this industry in Nigeria. The core bane of cloud computing services in this country is infrastructure; bandwidth and power. But I think many SMEs - and big coys too! - are still wondering how cloud services are relevant to them and why they should consider it over the legacy systems that are in place.

Nice thread though.

I am sure its regulated in EU and USA. Now i am not 100% sure if free services like Sky-drive, dropbox is included but business customers in UK can't have their data stored in America's datacenter.by law it has to be somewhere around Europe.

Currently using office365 at my current workplace and the consultant assured us that our data are not sent outside Europe.A lot of business are worried about that a lot and i have been to cloud computing seminars and they all keep saying the same thing that their data are stored somewhere within the EU.

The location for Office365 data centres are on that link here http://www.microsoft.com/online/legal/v2/?docid=25

The Data protection law is here http://www.projectfusion.com/european-hosting-for-european-firms/

^

Kindly excuse that my questions are skewed towards the non technical aspects of the subject of this thread

I went through the links you provided and even skimmed through the European Data Act and I didn't see it stated explicitly that companies MUST keep their data in the EU. Indeed there is a clause that permits the use of countries outside the EU as long as they can ensure adequate data protection. While companies will try to allay the fears of users that their data is safe and within the EU they are not mandated by law to keep the data within EU regions.

For companies desirous of offering datacenter services in Nigeria I imagine it will be the level of data protection and cheaper rates that will help them better than a ruling from the government.

Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the EEA unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.
Accredit – Principal 8 of the Data Protection Act

You right but i have been to several seminars and most companies offering private cloud services always makes the promise that their data is within the EU. I have not made lots of research to it but i think if their data is in a USA datacenter, that mean its bound by US laws.EU data protection laws are different from US laws. I could be wrong about the main reason though but most companies in the UK have always specified that their want their data either in the UK or within the EU and most cloud providers stick to that generally. Companies can use datacenter outside EU but they have to be complaint with EU data protection law which i feel is a bit tricky. i will look online more if i can find a specific statement to sheds more light on that

N.B Found it. Companies outside the EEA will have to sign up for safe harbour agreement.

https://www.soas.ac.uk/infocomp/dpa/policy/outside/

Bawss1: ^

For companies desirous of offering datacenter services in Nigeria I imagine it will be the level of data protection and cheaper rates that will help them better than a ruling from the government.

Yea, but can datacenter and cloud services survive in Nigeria? i would really be glad if someone can write a report on this issue or give reasons. it will be nice if we can discuss it here also.

i know some guys were into this stuff recently in Naija. Supercloud.org but those guys have disappeared. i was just trying to make my research on them but they seem to have shut down.

Skywalker5:

Yea, but can datacenter and cloud services survive in Nigeria? i would really be glad if someone can write a report on this issue or give reasons. it will be nice if we can discuss it here also.

i know some guys were into this stuff recently in Naija. Supercloud.org but those guys have disappeared. i was just trying to make my research on them but they seem to have shut down.

skywalker...hmmm e b like sy na sky u really de.. wen we cannot maintain stable internet connections.. how can we den manage cloud services.. knowing fully well we need internet access not just internet access, a gud one @ dat.. in 9ja 2 get d best u have 2 pay tru ur nose. imagine MTN offering wimax 2mbps @ 53500k unlimited, d same on microwave goes for 200k per month..


Its a normal trend in 9ja for companies to rip d masses of their hard end cash giving silly bonuses such as free mbs on recharges, free facebook browsing, whatsapp bundle and the rest of them.....NCC is not helping matters @ all.. de ve shut dia mouth with money ever since TELECOMMUNICATION was introduced into 9ja..

DO u know d kind of tins i do 2 pull fast connections on my pc... i rely on the internet 4 80% of what i know as far as IT is concerned.. the other day i was astonished when someone connected a fibre channel to his home network lab for a fee i can afford here in 9ja.. i recently checked airtel broadband rates in indian men u go know say dis country get problem.. even if we are running on electricity 247 it still dont justify d huge rip offs

its either we are stuck on bundles, expensive tariffs, poor network and its substitutes.. how can piple like us leverage our IT skills well enough..its so sad...

One of my friend was in Naija recently and he said the connection was not that bad. what about businesses? Are their connection slow also? are there any cloud solutions being offered in Nigeria that is in use? I no dey Naija but i thought things should have improved.its a shame supercloud went down

Skywalker5: One of my friend was in Naija recently and he said the connection was not that bad. what about businesses? Are their connection slow also? are there any cloud solutions being offered in Nigeria that is in use? I no dey Naija but i thought things should have improved.its a shame supercloud went down

cloud connections hmm i dont tink so.. y wont de go down..considering the harsh weather of doing business in Nigeria.. tins de worsen daily oo my broda becos dem de cover some piple brains, eyes, n ears wit money dat de refused 2 listen 2 d masses oo.. As far as i am concerned internet in nigeria is hell... u want a gud connection, b ready 2 pay tru ur nose..cant pay,, dem endure with the ones u have

I am loving this thread day by day. It is good to know that there are so many geeks here that want Nigeria to get better.

PaaS, IaaS, SaaS .. Cloud is the future... but we need solid framework and Infrastructure to achieve this.

wahoooo representing learning from gurus like you guyz.

kudos
keep it coming.

For guys who are interested in taking Office365 and Azure exams. get your voucher from that link. You can use it to register for exam free of charge at any pro metric centre. you have to use it before December 31 this year

http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2014/10/16/get-certified-on-microsoft-azure-or-office-365-with-free-exams.aspx

who has used the recent Micro G8 server:
any pro & cons

likeme:
who has used the recent Micro G8 server:
any pro & cons

I have never seen it in use in production environment.I have only heard good things about it in a lab environment.

likeme:
who has used the recent Micro G8 server:
any pro & cons

Honestly, it depends on what you intend to run on the server . What are you requirements ? what application do you intend to install? what would be the up time ?

Cloud computing is an exciting concept to those who have a a IT saavy background. As an entrepeneur you want to offer your customer a solution that is pocket friendly, less complicated and hitchfree (at least to a tolerable extent). Cloud computing thrives in regions where the basic infrastructure like power, high broadband penetration, robust internet exchange points, are available. If it costs 20 dollars to set up cloud infastructure in the US, u can be sure it will cost 50 dollars or more in nigeria. With a population of about 180 million people, most of whom largely depend on pirated softwares, cloud computing will thrive in developing economies like ours than in the develpoed markets. Cloud computing was developed with broadband in mind.