Mobile phone operator, Digicel Jamaica has built itself a new command centre in Caymanas, St Catherine, that will become the base of its venture into a new line of business - data security and storage for corporate clients, at least three of whom are already signed up from Jamaica.

The data centre, developed at a cost of $500 million, will officially open for business in November.

The facility will also house Digicel's own technical team - the centre will employ 10 persons - who will largely operate from the ground floor of the three-storey building.

Digicel CEO Mark Linehan is promising a virtual data fortress for company information parked on the new servers for safekeeping.

Good fit

The new operation, while a departure from its core mobile business, would be a good fit with Digicel's operation, Linehan says.

"The more we engage our customers , the more we learn of their needs," he said Wednesday during a tour by the Financial Gleaner of the new plant.

"This is why we invested half a billion dollars in such a project, because companies have been expressing their concern about the continuity of their operation if hit by hurricane or any other disaster."

Digicel has some two million subscribers on its client list, and while the company's operation is now centred on cellular service, it will next week announce the rollout of its more advanced 4G network, offering mobile broadband.

The Irish-owned outfit has also partnered with Jamaican investors on a wireless subscriber television service to be called DigiTV, though little has been said about the latter project since its unveiling by press release nine months ago. There are now questions surrounding DigiTV's viability.

Digicel Jamaica's CEO Mark Linehan (left) and his head of ICT, John Clear, discussing aspects of the newly installed system at the data storage centre in St Catherine, on Wednesday. - photo by Mark Titus

Digicel will itself take up 4,000 square feet of space at the Caymanas facility.

It will be run by John Clear, Digicel's head of information and communication technology, who will also be in charge of keeping contract companies' backed-up data secure.

Clear would not be pressed into quoting a rate for the service, saying cost was determined by space, power and connectivity required per individual contract.

Already signed up are Jamaica Money Market Brokers, Insurance Company of the West Indies and Northern Caribbean University. Digicel also said two other regional outfits are on board, saying one is a managed services provider and the other a major financial services institution, but did not name them.

"These companies were looking for a solution within the country that they can be sure that the data that they have collected over the years is safe, or has a redundancy or a system built that if their system goes down, they can bounce back in the quickest time possible by accessing back-up data stored in a facility like this," said Linehan, referring the broader market it anticipates will buy its new service.

Built to withstand disasters

The data centre is a three-storey bunker-style building, constructed to withstand natural disasters.

Its infrastructure features two fibre networks - JPS and Flow - connectivity from Digicel's own network as well as Flow's, and two 1400 KVA back-up generators to ensure the system is never forced offline by power cuts.

Digicel's team is already in place at ground level, while the first floor of some 4,000 square feet is being fully fitted out for corporate customers.

Clear said the servers rest on a raised floor made of removable square tiles for uniform air distribution and to provide space for power cabling.

The flooring provides a plenum - that is, a sort of chamber to hold air or gas at positive pressure - for air to circulate below the floor as part of the air-conditioning system, he said.

The servers are mounted in rack cabinets and placed in single rows that form several corridors. The mainframe computers and storage devices big as the racks themselves are placed alongside them.

With the sensitive information involved, physical access to the site is restricted to selected personnel. There were areas that even the CEO and ICT bosses could not access unless they were buzzed in by a watcher, while armed security guards stood at each point of entry.