The Information Technology Authority (ITA) is preparing to tender the construction and managed operation of Oman’s national disaster recovery centre (NCDC).  

Designed to integrate emergency management into community development, the NCDC is envisaged as a tier 3 data centre that complies with the American National Standards Institute and Telecommunications Industry Association (ANSI TIA) 942-2 standard and the US Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver rating system.

A tier 3 data centre offers a theoretical uptime of 99.98 per cent, equivalent to 1.6 hours of interruption or downtime a year.

The scope of the planned project includes the entire range of the design and construction through to the operations and maintenance of the disaster recovery centre.   

The scope of work of the chosen contractor, which will comprise a consortium of local and international firms, will include civils, architectural and mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP). The MEP component will invariably include fire protection systems and other extra-low voltage systems such as surveillance cameras, network equipment, servers, access systems and other computing devices.

The NCDC will comprise at least three buildings. The first building will be 5,800 square metres comprising the main data centre and offices with fully fitted-out interior. The second building will be slightly smaller at 4,800 sq m, designed to accommodate an extension to the main data centre as well as offices. As such, the second building will be built as “core and shell”, without a full interior fit-out. A 2,700-sq-m third building is designed for accommodation and will feature 20 guest rooms and amenities with fully fitted out-interior.

The NCDC is probably among the first data centres in the region to integrate “green” into its design. Data centres are energy-intensive facilities due to the cooling requirements of machines that emit high amounts of heat. Green data centres have received increased attention in recent years in line with global sustainability initiatives. As in any other building, a green data centre is designed to utilise energy-efficient mechanical, electrical and computing devices to minimise environmental impact as well as to better manage the facility’s operating expense.

ITA is the sultanate’s key agency driving the implementation and supervision of national IT infrastructure projects in line with the Digital Oman Strategy.