INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Data Centres
MainOne urges RENs to adopt
technology to solve real problems
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M
ainOne, a leading connectivity and data centre solutions
provider, has advised Africa’s Research and Education
Networks (RENs) not to relent in its effort to improve the
region’s research and educational capability through collaborations
with MainOne and other innovative technology solutions providers.
The company’s Business Executive for Francophone West Africa and
Ghana, Kazeem Oladepo made the call at the annual conference
for the West and Central African Research and Education Network
(WACREN), held in Accra, Ghana.
Oladepo stressed the importance of technology, not only for
technology’s sake but as a tool, a means to an end; for strengthening
alliance amongst the academic community and optimising
operational efficiency that will enhance digital inclusion in the region.
Highlighting some of the challenges associated with research and
education in Africa, Oladepo urged the RENs to go beyond networks
and infrastructure, but to seek partnerships that will ensure that
additional applications and services integrated into the networks
through cost effective shared data centre and value-added solutions
offered by MainOne.
According to him, by harmonising infrastructure, services and
bandwidth solutions, RENs can introduce massive improvements in
education, leveraging Information and Communications Technology
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(ICT) to support availability of open educational resources,
introduce correspondence courses and foster MOOC tradition and
democratising the learning experience.
Oladepo commended the resolve of WACREN to connect regional
researchers to the global research and education communities across
the world and reiterated MainOne’s commitment to providing the
platform that will continue to enable all Research and Educational
institutions in West Africa to interconnect within themselves and
to the rest of the world, via high-capacity data networks, cloud and
colocation solutions.
Under the AfricaConnect2 programme and a contract with WACREN,
MainOne provides high-speed Internet services to schools, colleges
and universities, research and the general academic community
across West and Central Africa. The company delivered WACREN’s
first connectivity solution in the region with the connection of
London, Lagos and Accra Ghana, were the services have since been
launched in 2018.
MainOne is poised to extend the network to other regions in 2019
with the ongoing build of its subsea system into Dakar (Senegal) and
Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire). MainOne is also the preferred provider of
connectivity solutions to more than 20 tertiary institutions across West
and Central Africa, helping to canvass regional goal for research and
innovation as impetus for digital economy growth in West Africa. n
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