The government has reportedly initiated efforts to set up a tier 4 data centre, the first of its kind in Asia, that would be able to store massive amounts of digital data, in Gazipur’s Kaliakair. The primary choice for the site, however, has brought in much flak as the location falls under an earthquake prone zone.
Members of the centre’s technical negotiation team have expressed their shock knowing that a risky site has been primarily selected for the data centre – slated to be the fifth largest in the world.
Data centres are facilities that store and provide access to important and sensitive information; banks, research centres, government and other business organisations mostly use the data centres to store information and keep backup data in a safe location.
Expressing concerns about the location, Tapan Kanti Sarkar, a member of the technical negotiation committee, told the Dhaka Tribune that the issue has already been discussed at a committee meeting.
Ashraful Islam, chief of the committee, said the site has not been finalised yet. He added that Kaliakair was a suitable location as other alternative sites would cause a significant rise in the cost.
Appropriate earthquake-related measures would be taken if the centre was indeed built in Gazipur, Ashraful said. ICT Division sources said there are other alternative sites for the tier-4 data centre that do not belong to any earthquake prone zone. The Jessore ICT Park is such a suitable location as risks of any earthquake or flood are minimal and has necessary ICT support, they added.
“Tier 4 is not an amateur project; a multimillion dollar project like this can be established only to attract foreign business organisations and even other governments to deposit their data here and feel safe. But if they found it is established on an earthquake prone zone, it will not be profitable for the Bangladesh government to establish it,” a senior official of ICT Division told the Dhaka Tribune.
The project is estimated to cost around Tk1,000 crore under an agreement with China.
Although the Dhaka Tribune tried to get comments from Information and Communication Technology Division State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak, who is currently overseas, the state minister did not respond.
Sources said Palak has visited the proposed Gazipur site several times with senior officials of ZTE Corporation Bangladesh Ltd, the company selected as the suppliers for the project.
Some senior officials of the ZTE Corporation also reportedly came from China and met Palak in the second week of September.
Asked about the issue, Sabin Shrestha, vice-president of ZTE Corporation Bangladesh Ltd, claimed that nothing about the project including its location had been finalised yet.
“We are into negotiations on the issue with the government and nothing about the budget, the location, or the design has been finalised as yet. So it will be too soon to comment on whether it will be established in an earthquake prone zone or not,” he said.
Earlier, the government signed a government-to-government deal with China for the project, according to a letter of finance ministry in July 2014. However, no expenditure had been mentioned.
Currently there are only five Tier 4 data centres in the world which are situated in Madrid (Spain), Alcala de Henares (Spain), Las Vegas (USA), Olathe (USA) and Guelph (Canada).
The tier ranking for data centres depends on the service of quality and availability; annually, a tier 4 data centre will stay available 99.995% of the time, with only an annual down-time of 26.28 a minute.
Bangladesh currently owns a tier 3 data centre; but only a small amount of information has so far been stored.
