Burst Networks contracts Flexenclosure to build Myanmar’s first-ever Tier 4 data center

Telecom infrastructure specialist Flexenclosure has received a multi-million dollar data center order from broadband service provider Burst Networks in Myanmar. Flexenclosure has thereby contracted to deliver its "ecenter" -brand customized prefabricated modular data center for Burst, in one of the fastest growing ICT markets in the world, notes the company.

According to a press release, the new ecenter will be built in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on the outskirts of Yangon, and will be the first ever Tier 4 data center in Myanmar. As specified by the Uptime Institute, the Tier 4 classification is the data center industry’s most stringent in terms of redundancy, fault tolerance and availability. Tier 4 facilities are typically used to host mission critical systems; all heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are independently dual-powered for redundancy, for a fully fault-tolerant site infrastructure that yields an availability of 99.995 per cent.

The facility will have a total area of 330 sq. meters, consisting of a 220 sq. meter data center and a 110 sq. meter energy center. The ecenter has been designed to house a total of 72 racks with two secure pods, two secure cages, two meeting rooms, as well as 40 racks in a common data center area. Power is designed for a total IT load of 150kW, with 2N+1 power redundancy.

“I am very pleased to announce this first ever Tier 4 data center in Myanmar,” says Shalini Lagrutta, Regional Director, Asia, Flexenclosure. “Modular data centers are ideal for emerging markets like Myanmar, thanks to their speed of deployment, inherent flexibility and future agility. We already have a very strong presence in Myanmar, having deployed over 1,000 of our eSite hybrid power systems across the country, and we’re delighted to further strengthen our presence with this new ecenter project.”

Myanmar is growing extremely fast as a nation, notes Flexenclosure, with projected GDP growth in 2015 of 8.3 per cent.

“We believe the Thilawa project is of great strategic importance to the further development of Myanmar," comments Daniel Michener, CEO of Burst Networks. "The Burst teleport will make infrastructure available to customers in key growth sectors – such as financial services, and mobile communications – that is critical to support their modernization and expansion plans."

The full turnkey ecenter project is to include civil works and installation of the data center facility. Construction will take place at Flexenclosure’s factory in Vara, Sweden, with deployment in Myanmar in early 2016. A key ecenter benefit is its prefabrication in Flexenclosure’s clean room factory in Sweden, notes the company. This will ensure an extremely high quality product and a much shorter overall project duration, than if it was constructed from scratch on site, adds Flexenclosure, thus enabling Burst to launch their new services to the market very fast.

Burst Networks’ teleport will not only include the new Tier IV data center, but also a state of the art network operations center connecting a hybrid network of local fiber and satellite infrastructure (supporting C-Band, Ku-Band and Ka-Band frequencies). When commissioned and licensed to operate, the teleport will provide a robust, scalable, state-of-the-art nationwide network offering broadband services to enterprise, SME and third-party provider clients such as data connectivity, VPN, VoIP, video conferencing, network redundancy, data storage and recovery, colocation and hosting services.

"Our focus on quality, security and reliability will enhance our customers’ ability to better serve their clients, compete in regional and global economies and minimize their operational risks,” asserts Burst's CEO, Michener. “To that end, we chose to design a world-class facility and a Tier IV datacenter is the cornerstone of our ability to execute this strategy. It was imperative that we select a supplier who would not only be able to provide us with the best data center possible, but who we could also work with as a trusted partner from the development of the initial business case and design, right through to the ultimate delivery of the facility to ensure a best of class result. With Flexenclosure, we know we’re in very good hands.”