Science & Tech
GALAXY Backbone (GBB), Nigeria’s ICT infrastructure platform, has pledged to provide a safe and secure back-up for the proposed Data Centre of the University of Ilorin (Unilorin).
According to the University of Ilorin Bulletin issued on Wednesday, the GBB Managing Director, Prof. Muhammad Abubakar, made the promise when he received Unilorin’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Egbewole, who visited the public enterprise’s headquarters in Abuja.
Abubakar promised to do all what it takes to collaborate and synergies with the university to ensure that Egbewole achieves his target as vice-chancellor.
According to him, the Federal Government established Galaxy Backbone in 2006 as a public enterprise with the primary responsibility of establishing and running a unified Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure platform.
He added that the platform address the connectivity, transversal and other technological imperatives for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government.
The managing director, who is a Professor of Petroleum Geosciences, said the GBB is a Limited Liability Company expected to deliver on social component and also generate revenue to the government.
He added that GBB provide services to over 300 agencies, including universities and teaching hospitals with thousands of fibres presently covering 19 states and expected to cover the 36 states of the country by the end of 2023.
“The core mandate of the agency is to secure/protect Government data from attacks to the tune of One Million Five Hundred Thousand (1,500,000) attacks daily.
“The GBB has three data centres in Abuja and four data centres in Kano with a total of 3.9 petabyte of storage capacity with collaborations on cloud services, cyber-security and digitalisation of academic research, among others,” he said.
Earlier, Egbewole said that Unilorin, whose core mandates include teaching, research, learning and community services, seek collaboration with the GBB.
He noted that the university needed to improve on its technological capacity to drive these core mandates and achieve the set goals.
Egbewole explained that the partnership would be a win-win situation as it would be mutually beneficial to both institutions.
The vice chancellor said that Unilorin initiated and started the Computer Based Test (CBT) Centre while other universities in Nigeria emulated it, adding that the institution planned to embark on another stride that other institutions would emulate and adopt.
He requested the support of Galaxy Backbone to build a data centre for the university, as well as support the expertise, finance and infrastructure needs of the institution.
The vice chancellor stressed the importance of technology in the 21st century, especially at the better by far university where over 15,000 students take a single course.
He said the designed goal can only be achieved if the citadel of learning can get partners and sponsors that would identify areas of need and come to the aid of the university. (NAN)
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Tags: Galaxy Backbone Prof. Muhammad Abubakar
