Iran to open second-largest data center over weekend: Minister

Iran’s communications and information technology minister said a second large-scale data center meant to improve security and sustainability in the cyberspace would come online later this week.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in a tweet that Iran’s first mobile phone operator MCI would launch the data center in the northwestern city of Tabriz on Sunday, Press TV reported.

Azari Jahromi said the data center would boost sustainability of the network infrastructure in Iran while it will significantly increase the capacity for cloud computing in the country.

He said the launch would also improve the business environment for internet startups in Iran’s Azarbaijan, a major ethnic region bordering Turkey with a huge contribution to Iran’s economic output.

The minister did not elaborate on the size of investment carried out by the MCI to launch the project. However,

it will come exactly a month after rival mobile operator MTN Irancell unveiled Iran’s largest data center in the capital Tehran.

Irancell authorities said at the time that the $63-million facility would increase Iran’s overall data center capacity by 25 percent.

The expansion of internet infrastructure in Iran comes less than a year after the country used its domestic online services to handle a blackout that was caused by rioting over fuel price hikes.

The government said after the blackout was lifted in December that the National Information Network (NIN) had proved highly useful in the provision of key online services during the blackout.

Authorities insist the NIN infrastructure should improve concurrent with efforts to expand the internet in Iran as the country needs a reliable network to back up sensitive services during emergencies.