GEANT is supporting WACREN under the AfricaConnect3 project funded by the European Union (DG INTPA)

WACREN operates a backbone network with points of presence (PoPs) in West and Central Africa, utilising submarine and terrestrial cables to interconnect locally, regionally and globally. Aggregation PoPs in London, Lagos, Accra and Abidjan to Edge PoPs which serve as access points for NRENs in Burkina Faso, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo.

WACREN runs a cloud service to support e-Research activities aligned with SDGs between teams of end users, technologists and NREN representatives. This infrastructure is being upgraded in AfricaConnect3 to provide more storage and compute nodes. This tender is intended to support this upgrade requirement.

WACREN’s objective in publishing this tender (with GEANT’s support) is to secure a contract for the supply and support of cloud server equipment to provide member services, funded under the AfricaConnect3 project. The project, 80% funded by the European Commission (EC), will build upon the high-capacity network for research and education that has been established in the WACREN region over the last 6 years.

WACREN seeks to establish its own resilient cloud server infrastructure to deliver services to member NRENs and institutes in the region. The solution will be collocated at the WACREN PoP which is in MDXI in Lagos, Nigeria.