By Kester Omu
Mr. Mohammed Rudman, Chief Executive Officer of the Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), has urged Nigeria to work towards keeping traffic search on the internet local, stressing that the benefits are enormous.
Rudman gave the reasons and benefits of keeping Internet search local, during an interaction with the crew of CFA.ng at the IXPN office in Lagos.
“As a country working towards digitally-driven economy, there is a need to invest heavily in infrastructure, so the country can ultimately keep Internet search local,” he said.
He explained that keeping Internet local in Nigeria will reduce the capital flight incurred in hosting in other countries, which is in US Dollars, as the reduction in capital flight will also lead to reduction in latency as well as higher quality of service.
Rudman noted that the local hosting of Internet traffic local, will further strengthen the cyber security of the country, as passing of data through international borders is now sidetracked.
Speaking further, Rudman mentioned that it will also ensure business continuity as Nigeria is depended on submarine cables for hosting internationally. “If a natural disaster occurs, such as a Tsunami and damages these submarine cables, this will definitely mean a disruption in the local individual and business communication flow,” he said.
According to him, hosting of content locally will help build and develop technical skills to manage data centers in the country, instead of depending on other countries that host. This, also, inadvertently, means the creation of more jobs for Nigerians.
Mohammed is of the view that Nigeria already has the capacity to keep the Internet traffic local, as several Tier3 Data Centres with adequate infrastructure to support the weight abound. He also believes that most of the Data Centers operators have the potentials to expand their facilities.
Internet Exchange Point is a physical infrastructure, where all internet providers, educational institutions and any other organisations that are IP-centric can get connected, so that they can exchange their traffic locally.