‘OrionStellar’ – first carrier-neutral and high-density data centre launched in SL

ICTA Chairman and TRCSL Director General Oshada Senanayake and Digital Realty Chairman Rajendra Theagarah open Sri Lanka’s first carrier-neutral and high-density data centre

The local IT sector yesterday saw the launch of Sri Lanka’s first carrier-neutral and high-density data centre at the Orion City IT Park, facilitated by Digital Reality (Pvt.) Ltd.

The data, built to TIA Tier-3 standards and a capacity of over 200 racks, was unveiled under the brand name OrionStellar.

The newly launched high-density data centre is designed to offer world-class services to support the rapidly escalating demand for computing power in an increasingly digital Sri Lankan economy. It promises the highest energy efficiency and power density up to 15 kW per rack, with a total power capacity of 1.5 MW.

Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka Director General Oshada Senanayake said the launch of Sri Lanka’s first carrier-neutral data centre is part of an “interesting” paradigm shift that is already underway.
Calling it a major step forward in Sri Lanka’s rapid transformation towards becoming a South Asian hub for IT and tech-enabled services, Digital Realty Chairman Rajendra Theagarajah said the new centre represents a historic milestone in the development of Sri Lanka’s IT infrastructure.

“It is also a momentous step in our mission to radically simplify digital infrastructure challenges for local and regional enterprises and drastically improve the speed at which they conduct their business,”
said Theagarajah.

Reflecting similar sentiments, Orion City Founder/Director and Digital Realty Managing Director Jeevan Gnanam pointed out that Sri Lanka enjoys several uniquely valuable natural and cultivated advantages, which makes it an ideal option for safely and reliably storing data at scale.

“With our DC now online, we will be able to provide clients with best-in-class, globally competitive services to accelerate their digitalisation journeys, rationalise core infrastructure costs and establish stronger levels of security and redundancy, all while reducing energy costs and contributing towards a green and prosperous economy,” said Gnanam.

OrionStellar is built in compliance with the latest ISO 27001 standards and global data centre standards (TIA-942 Rated 3). The new data centre will deliver the highest levels of reliability, efficiency and redundancy with 99.98 percent uptime.

The centre features power infrastructure with 2 (N+1) UPS systems, with 30 minutes battery backup uptime and an N+1 generator system supported with 72-hour fuel bulk tanks, ensuring reliable and uninterrupted power supply.
The facility was also designed with an unmatched focus on environmental sustainability enabled by an in-row cooling system, with best-in-class efficiency ratings. OrionStellar guarantees the best power usage efficiency (PUE), with a design PUE of 1.4. This will translate to power savings up to 40 percent for clients migrating their IT loads to OrionStellar.

The facility also features an unloading bay ready to receive customer inventory for hosting and a staging area to test equipment prior to entering the data hall.

OrionStellar is poised to offer an array of digital infrastructure solutions and value-added managed services to enterprises. It will support the rapidly escalating demand for computing power in an increasingly digital Sri Lankan economy and the region at large, with a special emphasis on providing highly cost-effective data offshoring services for regional enterprise powerhouses.

OrionStellar colocation solutions have been designed to meet the needs of different business segments with varying requirements. The facility has already designated white-labelled space for telcos and larger MNCs, featuring dedicated cages with biometric access control for large enterprises. Individual racks with biometric or lockable doors and U-level hosting for SME and start-up hosting needs are among the product options complemented with ‘Remote Pair of Hands’ service as value addition.

Each co-location space or rack will be individually monitored, even to U level, for power delivery and consumption to ensure that clients only pay for what they use, enabling cost visibility and control in their digital infrastructure investments.

Furthermore, the OrionStellar data centre offers an array of value-added services, including storage as a service, backup as a service to secure mission-critical enterprise data, disaster recovery solutions during unexpected downtime and cost-effective data centre migration services with minimal disruption to core business functions.