Odisha plans data centre on PPP mode

To cater to the needs of private and public sector undertakings in the state

The Odisha government is planning to set up a data centre to cater to the needs of private and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the state on public private partnership (PPP) mode.

"The government has taken a decision to have a data centre on PPP mode for hosting servers of PSUs and IT and ITes units of the state.

As the state is poised to become an IT hub, it is imperative to have low cost storage facilities to have a complete ecosystem. It will be an Opex (operational expenditure) model", said an IT department official.

We will be discovering the modalities of setting up the data centre by studying the best practices, he added. The project is likely to come up at Infovalley, a dedicated IT park.

In Odisha, a state data centre (SDC) with a capacity of 80 terabyte (TB) hosting 41 IT applications is operational, catering to the needs of the 21 government departments only. With the storage space of the state data centre already been utilized, the government is planning to add another 100 TB (40 racks).

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is also planning to set up a world class data centre in Bhubaneswar at an investment of Rs 60 crore. The data centre will be one of its kind in eastern India with a certification from the Uptime Institute, United States. 

It will be a 100 rack data centre.The passive infrastructure will be taken up with a cost of Rs 30 crore in the first phase and the balance will be invested in the second phase. With the completion of the project, public sector undertakings (PSUs), micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and corporates will be able to host their servers at the data centre.

As the state government has mandated that all its departments will earmark two per cent of their annual plan budget or one per cent of their overall budget (whichever is higher) for IT spending to provide services through the electronic mode, the plan to set up data centre is a step in this regard, he added.