Bangladesh's first ever data centre ‘Meghna Cloud’ starts operation

Gennext Technologies Limited, a leading ICT company, has inaugurated the full-fledged operation of Bangladesh’s first ever cloud data centre, Meghna Cloud, at Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City in Kaliakoir, Gazipur.

The platform will provide cloud service infrastructure, including servers, storage, networking equipment, and associated software technology. Through this, it will be possible to provide services to both government and private entities by keeping the country's data within its domestic territory.

This move is expected to save a large amount of foreign currency the country spends annually on purchasing and using cloud technology.

Within just one year, the cloud platform has been operationalised. On December 29, 2022, Gennext made a joint venture agreement with Bangladesh Data Centre Company Limited (BDCCL) for Meghna Cloud.

Under the agreement, Gennext will build, operate, and maintain the Meghna Cloud, as well as ensure sales and marketing of the cloud services to the government and private sector together with BDCCL.

Following its inauguration recently, State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that this 'Made in Bangladesh Cloud' is an excellent example of a strategic partnership between the government and private sector. Through this initiative, the country can save a huge amount of foreign currency and ensure more data security.

During the visit to the Meghna Cloud data centre in Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City, Gennext Technologies Chairman Touhidul Islam Chaudhury and Gennext Technologies Managing Director Alavee Azfar Chaudhury briefed State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak and ICT Secretary Md Shamsul Arefin about the cloud centre’s operation.

Gennext has used state-of-the-art technologies to set up the cloud platform and developed a skilled workforce to operate it.

“Meghna Cloud will support the Smart Bangladesh move forward. We are also setting up a research and development centre for teachers and students of both government and private universities," said Touhidul Islam Chaudhury, Chairman of Gennext Technologies.

This initiative will provide training on cloud-related technology to about 5,000 students every year, he added.

The company is planning to invest around USD 500 million within the next five years for this project, said Javed Opgenhaffen, Vice Chairman of Gennext Technologies.

“We want to work with the government jointly to contribute to the overall development of the country. This cloud platform is expected to play a significant role in establishing Smart Bangladesh,” he said.

The data centre would help the government save foreign currency in purchasing and using cloud technology from other countries, as Bangladesh would not require depending only on foreign data storage facilities, he added.

According to industry experts, most of the data in Bangladesh comes through Singapore servers. This creates a two-fold challenge. Firstly, in the current system, the government of Singapore will have access to the data. Thus, it would be difficult to retrieve any sensitive data.

Secondly, the cost of transferring data would be higher as it would need to travel quite a distance, which would require around 60 milliseconds to transfer from Singapore to Bangladesh. If the data centres are within country boundaries, then it would mitigate these two issues.

“Meghna Cloud is hoping to create a security platform that would provide top-notch data security to government and non-government organisations,” said Alavee Azfar Chaudhury, Managing Director of Gennext Technologies. 

In 2019, the government established the Tier 4 National Data Centre, the largest in Bangladesh, at Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City, which is run by BDCCL.

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