Bangalore, June 30 (IANS) The state-run Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Ltd has set up a next-generation data centre at its main facility on the outskirts of this tech hub in collaboration with the Mumbai-based leading IT infrastructure and services firm Trimax Data Centre Services Ltd.
The Rs.77 crore (Rs.770 million) data centre, which will provide customer-centric services to the government and private enterprises, was unveiled Tuesday by Telecom Secretary and Telecom Commission chairman Siddhartha Behura in Doorvaninagar campus, about 20 km from here.

The 50-seater ITI data centre will offer a range of services, including co-location services, hosting services and managed services such as server management, network management and security management.

“The prime business focus of the data centre will be the value-added services such as messaging solutions, video conferencing and remote infrastructure management,” ITI chairman and managing director S.K. Chatterjee told reporters.

As per the joint agreement, 82 percent of the revenue generated by the data centre will be credited with Trimax, while the rest will accrue to ITI.

ITI is in final discussions with the state-run RailTel Corporation of India Ltd, New Delhi; Karnataka Police Housing Ltd, Bangalore; Business Intelligent Technologies, Bangalore; Glodyne, Mumbai; and Madhucon, Hyderabad to engage them as customers for data centre services.

“We are targeting Rs.50 crore in the first year (2009-10) of operations. As part of our diversifying strategy, we plan to set up two more data centres, at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Palakkad in north Kerala,” Chatterjee said.

Going forward, the loss-making ITI plans to offer pan-India data centre services by networking the new centre and the proposed such centres in other locations across the country.

Trimax chairman Surya Prakash Madrecha said an additional Rs.143 crore would be invested in the data centre during the second phase of expansion by this year-end.

“This is our fourth data centre, with three other similar centres in Mumbai. Besides data services, we provide end-to-end IT solutions to government organisations and private enterprises,” Madrecha said.

The Rs.217 crore Trimax has raised 70 percent of the investment (Rs.77 crore) as debt from banks and financial institutions and the balance from internal accruals.