Zain, the foremost telecom company in Jordan, has announced the launch of ‘The Bunker’ – a TIER III UPTIME, with 99.982% availability, state-of-the-art, military grade design and development, highly modernised, fully redundant power, cooling and communications network data centre, situated at the King Hussein Business Park in Amman Jordan. The Bunker, which is the first of its kind in the region and one of very few worldwide, gives local, regional and international organisations the opportunity to host their IT infrastructure, disaster recovery (DR) offices and enhance their ICT business processes.
The Bunker is another initiative that exemplifies Zain Jordan’s efforts to spearhead digital transformation in the country. The company revolutionised telecommunications in Jordan by introducing GSM mobile services in the country and introduced Fourth Generation services “LTE” for the first time in the kingdom.
Companies that have very crucial computational functions and important data to store can really value such a facility that provides the highest levels of security and sustainability. When a company uses The Bunker as their main data centre or their disaster recovery (backup) location, it is safer than any other conventional building. Its area measures approximately 4300 sq/m, located 12m below ground level. Built with the same specifications as a military-grade underground facility, The Bunker is constructed to the highest standards of security and redundancy requirements. It has dedicated rooms protected by high security two-ton iron doors and two metres thick reinforced concrete walls, giving it the capability to withstand natural disasters, missiles and fires. Furthermore, when a disaster strikes, the cooling, power and connectivity systems are redundant and can be sustained for long periods without any outage. The facility has 24/7 onsite security personnel and advanced surveillance cameras security systems (CCTVs).
Mr Fahad AlJasim, Chief Executive Officer at Zain Jordan, said: “We see this as a turning point and a milestone in Zain’s journey to be the most advanced telecom operator, to meet the long-term aspirations of our partners, and to help them with a range of services that are at the core of their business, contributing to their aspirations for further success in their organisation.”
The technological advancements of IoT, Big Data Analytics and Cloud Services, require substantial computing power, resilient networks and, most importantly, security. Nevertheless, conventional data centres are not disaster proof and provide a mediocre security level. The value proposition of The Bunker is that it provides a colocation space as well as a designed cloud, heavily protected underground and powered by Zain’s resilient network. Companies can avoid large TCOs of building data centres and alternatively adopt an OPEX model through yearly payments. The facility’s location in the heart of Amman is very convenient to IT staff of any company to reach The Bunker where their servers are hosted.
The Bunker is not just a data centre. Other than its variety of colocation options, it consists of various DR offices. Customers can rent dedicated or shared offices as well as ‘hot seats’ which can serve as business continuity units in cases of disasters or day to day activities related to their data centre. These spaces span from 20sq/m to 100sq/m and can cater to various customer needs.
The Bunker hosts a Network Operation Centre (NOC) to monitor and protect data centre related infrastructure (UPS, generators, firewalls, switches, chillers, etc). It also hosts a Security Operations Centre (SOC) to monitor and protect colocation customers and our existing cloud infrastructure, cyber security threats and other preventive operations.
The facility is Uptime Tier III certified. This certification is only given to data centres that are secure and provide cooling, power and connection redundancy to the users of the facility to ensure continuity of service.
Zaid Jordan’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr Yousef Abu Mutawe concludes: “Zain has transformed from providing services to individuals to becoming a leader in providing services to the business sector. We are extremely proud to introduce the Zain Regional Centre for Data Storage, Information and Disaster Recovery (The Bunker) which is the first of its kind in the Arab world. We will continue to expand and enhance our ICT portfolio and introduce innovation to the market.”
