Maroc Telecom provides data storage to SMEs at Casablanca data center

DOWNTOWN CASABLANCA
Maroc Telecom has gotten into the data center business. At a time when increasing numbers of major players are getting involved in data storage, the top telecom company in Morocco has elected to set up shop on Avenue Hassan II in downtown Casablanca, right in the middle of the company’s network architecture. The data center is mainly intended to serve Moroccan SMEs. Maroc Telecom offers a hosting package for servers and other IT functions at the data center.

FACTS AND FIGURES
The data center comprises two white spaces (2,420 sq. ft. and 1,670 sq. ft., respectively) to house the servers. The spaces can hold up to 100 racks, which themselves hold the servers, cables and other data storage hardware. Maroc Telecom has a third white space (1,950 sq. ft.) ready for immediate use, as well as potential plans to make a fourth space available (5,740 sq. ft.) once technical and environmental studies have been completed.

DATA STORAGE
In these white spaces, Maroc Telecom carries out physical data storage for its clients. The service package starts at 11,000 dirhams per month and increases from there, depending on the desired storage capacity and connection speed, but also on the amount of energy consumed. The package includes infrastructure setup and the establishment of connectivity between the client and the data center via Maroc Telecom’s optical cables. The data center also hosts cloud storage for Maroc Telecom’s professional clients.

TIER III STANDARDS
Designed in accordance with Tier III standards, the data center is required to achieve an uptime of 99.982% and no more than 1.6 hours of downtime annually to obtain the Uptime Institute’s certification – the standard-bearer in the sector. Very few Moroccan data centers have obtained this highly regarded certification. (Source: www.telquel.ma)