CASE STUDY | NIGERIA, Solar Computing

Diseye Isoun, Project Manager, Yentech

Challenge Results

Nigeria National Information Technology Development Agency“The low power characteristic of the Aleutia combined with a reasonable cost was attractive. It also came across as a product that was not too fragile and could weather tough environments.”

Set up three Rural ICT Centres in Okoloba Nigeria, an area with no access to electricity.

Low Power Consumption for computers, monitors, and server vital since entire centre running on solar.

Relaible hardware essential as sites are in remote area and maintenance di�cult

Rapid deployment needed

3 Complete Rural ICT Centers Deployed, each with 20 Aleutia T1 Solid State PCs , Cisco Network, and Aleutia server running Windows Server 2008, and VSAT Connectivity

Energy E�cient Aleutia Computers and LED Monitors used to keep power consumption at 600 Watts.

No Moving Parts in PCs and each T1 can run as stand alone Windows PC if server fails so no single point of failure

Aleutia computers built and delivered to Nigeria via FedEx within 10 days.

Aleutia Computers | Development House, 56 Leonard St, London EC2A 4LT | 0844-ALEUTIA | www.aleutia.com

Aleutia: Can you tell us a bit more about this project and these NITDA Centres?

Diseye: NITDA stands for National Information Technology Develop-ment Agency. They are an agency of the Nigerian Federal government that is expected to promote the utilization of ICT and create aware-ness. The Rural Information Technology Centers provided computers, VSAT, printer, copier, furniture a network and some solar equipment to rural locations.

Aleutia: The desktop PC market is pretty crowded. Why did you choose Aleutia hardware over other brands??

Diseye: Actually, I buy everything I can locally even if it is at a slight premium to minimize customs. So it basically takes a day or two to buy and a weekend to install.

However, the low power characteristic of the Aleutia combined with a reasonable cost was attractive so we purchased these directly from the UK. It also came across as a product that was not too fragile and could weather tough environments. Finally, being a small company, we are are always interested in working with other promising small and medium enterprises.

Aleutia: How did you get the Rural IT Information Centers online?

Diseye: We purchased VSAT equip for around $2,500 at "special o�er" rates (including outdoor equip, cables and indoor VSAT modem). The painful cost of course is the recurring bandwidth fee: for C band (better band for rainy conditions) you are still looking at about $3 per kbps per month retail prices, so a 128kbps downlink and 64kbps uplink would cost $576 per month (and that is even slightly contended bandwidth). 3G would cost a fraction of this but is not available in these areas.

Aleutia: How did you �nd working with Aleutia?

Diseye: Working with Aleutia worked well and the products are still functioning well at the centers where they were installed in October 2009.

About Aleutia: Aleutia manufactures energy e�cient PCs and servers in the UK with an aim to provide a�ordable, reliable computers to as many individuals and schools in remote areas as possible, particularly in Africa. Since 2006 our computers have been deployed in 63 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and from Greenland to Saudi Arabia. Our customers include Tesco, Schlumberger, Pret a Manger, Virgin, Cambridge University, and the NHS.

Aleutia Computers | Development House, 56 Leonard St, London EC2A 4LT | 0844-ALEUTIA | www.aleutia.com