Case Study

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MTN Cote d’Ivoire’s Bold New Digital World

The ChallengeAs the leading telecoms operator in Cote d’Ivoire, MTN

constantly strives to deliver the best and most complete

service to its customers.

MTN wanted to evolve from traditional telephony service

provision – based on voice and SMS – to a more mature

set of mobile services such as broadband Internet, mobile

money, video on demand, etc. It also wanted to establish

the capability to create an entirely new market in the

country – providing innovative data hosting services for its

Enterprise customers.

In order to achieve these ambitious goals, a major

infrastructure upgrade and expansion project needed to

be undertaken.

Flexenclosure AdvantageBy deploying Flexenclosure eCentres, MTN Cote d’Ivoire

has been able to capitalise of a number of significant

eCentre differentiators:

• Aguaranteedproduct,withguaranteedenergy

efficiency, in a guaranteed time, at a guaranteed price

and with very low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

• Maximumpreparationandtestinginthefactoryin

Sweden ensures extremely fast installation on site,

resulting in a project duration typically five times shorter

than that for a brick and mortar facility

The SolutioneCentre by Flexenclosure – a complete, pre-fabricated,

pre-equipped, custom designed modular solution to house

and power data and telecom equipment.

Two identical 336sqm eCentres – each incorporating

discrete switching centre, energy centre and hosted data

centre areas – will provide MTN Cote d’Ivoire not only with

the immediate capacity it needs, but also with the modern

infrastructure required to manage the on-going expansion

of its data traffic and to pioneer new value added and

hosted data services across the country.

Delivered as a full turnkey project including all civil works,

installation of the eCentre and re-location of some existing

equipment to the new sites.

• Afuture-proofedtechnicalbuildingwhereadditional

fully customised internal space can be created easily,

on demand and without any operational disruption

• Designedwithultraefficientcoolingandpowersystems,

Flexenclosure calculates and can guarantee a PUE value

for every deployment

And with extensive experience deploying technical facilities

in the most challenging environments in over 50 countries,

Flexenclosure brings creative ideas, fully tested solutions

and total peace of mind…. fast.

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An Interview with Jerome Curtis General Manager Capital Programs, MTN Cote d’Ivoire

How will your new eCentres support your strategic objectives in Cote d’Ivoire?

“At MTN Cote d’Ivoire our vision is to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world to

our customers and we work hard to provide them with the best possible service.

In order to turn our vision into reality, we needed to undertake a huge project to

modernise and expand our network infrastructure. Building two new data centres is a

key part of this and we are implementing the latest technology to guarantee network

availability, stability, redundancy and capacity, as well as providing the foundation for

offering new high value added services for our customers.”

What exactly are you building?

“We are building two identical data centres, both of which are to be located in Abidjan, the economic capital of Cote

d’Ivoire. Each facility covers 336m2 and they are divided into three areas: a switching centre, an energy centre and a hosting

data centre which will provide us with the platform to offer new enterprise-focussed cloud services.

Both of these facilities will be centrally managed from our national network operation centre.”

Initial constructionAll eCentres are constructed, extensively

tested and pre-commissioned under

controlled conditions in a clean-room

factory environment in Sweden. This allows

for precise predictability in relation to cost,

time and quality and a significantly reduced

total project time, especially the time spent

on site.

Arrival on siteThe fully equipped modules arrive by truck

and are “unwrapped”, ready to be lifted into

place. In this way eCentres can be easily and

quickly deployed, allowing for the almost

immediate establishment of advanced

technical facilities anywhere - an impossible

goal when building with brick and mortar.

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How are these data centres different from those you have built before?

“This is the first time that a prefabricated modular data centre has ever been constructed in Cote d’Ivoire, and it has been

done very fast. Flexenclosure did most of the technical installation and testing in their factory in Sweden and then

constructed the first data centre on site in just two weeks.

This modular solution is also fully scalable, so we can quickly and easily increase the size of the facilities whenever we need

to expand network capacity. And the data centres are optimised for energy efficiency so we can be sure we are responsibly

managing the use of our country’s resources.

Ultimately they will help bring MTN and Cote d’Ivoire up to the standards of the most technologically advanced countries in

the world in terms of ICT infrastructure.”

Why did you choose Flexenclosure?

“We have entered into a strategic partnership with Flexenclosure to build our new data centres for a number of important

reasons. First, we wanted a high quality solution that would allow us to easily modernise and expand our network

infrastructure and service offerings to our customers.

Second, we needed these new fully turnkey facilities up and running as fast as possible, and Flexenclosure is the only

company we found who could provide both the quality we wanted and the speed of implementation.

And third, Flexenclosure has a strong track record of experience in successfully delivering data centres to other MTN group

companies across Africa. So we were comfortable they would provide exactly what we need to achieve our strategic

objectives in Cote d’Ivoire.”

Site assemblyThe modules are lifted into place one by

one. In this instance, all eight modules were

placed in less than a day, ready for final

hook up and commissioning.

eCentre’s modular construction allows for

easy expansion when required, and its fully

open-plan interior is infinitely customisable

as required.

Hook up completeThe specialist Flexenclosure personnel who

build the eCentre modules in Sweden also

travel to site to complete the final hook up,

commissioning and customer hand-over

process. This end-to-end management by a

single team ensures continuity and reduces

risk throughout the entire project.

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ECEN-M-CAS-005 (Rev 0)

“[The eCentres] will help bring MTN and Cote d’Ivoire up to the standards of the most technologically advanced countries in the world in terms of ICT infrastructure. So we were comfortable they would provide exactly what we need to achieve our strategic objectives in Cote d’Ivoire.”

Jerome Curtis, General Manager Capital Programs, MTN Cote d’Ivoire

About Flexenclosure

Flexenclosure is a designer and manufacturer of intelligent power management

systems and prefabricated data centres for the ICT industry. The company

provides systems that are fully integrated, modular, factory tested for reliability,

adaptable to local conditions and quick to install.

eCentres are custom-designed, prefabricated data centre buildings that are

fast to deploy, energy efficient and easy to expand. eCentre is a future proofed

state-of-the-art technical facility that provides a flexible and expandable open

floor space and is optimised for energy efficiency.

eSite is a hybrid power system for off-grid and bad-grid cell sites that cuts

diesel costs by up to 90 per cent. eSite is an integrated single-cabinet system

for maximum reliability and speed of installation. eManager, a remote site

management and KPI reporting tool, is an integral part of the product.

Flexenclosure was founded in 1989 and is based in Vara, Sweden,

headquartered in Stockholm and with additional offices in in India, Kenya,

Malaysia, Mozambique, Nigeria, and the UAE. Customers include airtel, MTN,

Vodacom and Zain.