Alcatel-Lucent, a French global telecommunications equipment company has announced it is to provide the government of Burkina Faso with cloud networking technology, thereby enabling it develop new digital public services such as e-learning, e-health and e-government.
Burkina Faso will be supplied with Alcatel-Lucent’s NFV (Network Functions Virtualization), Cloudband and IP platforms, which will be integrated into the ‘G-Cloud’ infrastructure to be built around virtualized network resources from cloud nodes in its capital, Ouagadougou and five provinces.
Also, about 400 buildings in 13 regional urban centers will be connected through a 513 Km fiber-optic IP/MPLS wide area network with backhaul provided by an 800 km fiber-optic transmission system that will become part of Burkina Faso’s National Fibre Optics Backbone.
The ‘G-Cloud’ project, launched on November 12, 2015 at a ceremony graced by local and national dignitaries such as Mr. Yacouba Isaac ZIDA, the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso; Dr. Nébila Amadou YARO, the Minister of Digital Economy and Post and Mr. Bo Jensen, the Danish Ambassador to Burkina Faso, is part of an ambitious IT and telecommunication strategy being administered by the country’s Ministry for Digital Development (MDENP – Ministère du Développement de l’Économie Numérique et des Postes).
The project will enable connectivity between public departments and municipalities via an e-government platform – an integral element of Burkina Faso’s Economic and Social Development Strategy, SCADD (Stratégie pour une croissance accéléré et un développement durable).
Alpin Verlet, Head of Alcatel-Lucent activities in West and Central Africa stated that the ‘G Cloud’ project will provide citizens of Burkina Faso access to government services and that it would become the cynosure of all eyes in no time.
“Alcatel-Lucent is proud and happy to build this project, the first ‘Government Cloud’ in the region, for the Government of Burkina Faso. This project will soon become a very strong exemplary project, showing how a forward thinking government is using the Cloud technology to provide its citizens with access to government services.” he said.
Also, the network will support the anticipated increase in future demand for digital services to the health, education, justice, immigration, parliament and other sectors in the coming years. Under the agreement with MDENP, Alcatel-Lucent will support network and infrastructure operations to be installed by 2017.
The project is being financed by the Danish government through Danida Business Finance, which contributed €30 million (19.9 billion FCFA) to the project with a direct grant subsidy of €15.5 million (10 billion FCFA).
Alcatel-Lucent, founded in 2006 and headquartered in France, is a leading IP networking, ultra-broadband access and cloud technology specialist with a mission of inventing and delivering trusted networks to help its customers unleash their value.
Image Credit: Alcatel-Lucent via Twitter.
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