Malta’s leading data centre company – BMIT – this morning announced an investment of €3 million in a new data centre at SmartCity Malta. The investment will drastically increase Malta’s data centre capacity and consolidate the company’s position as Malta’s largest data centre provider. This investment is one of a series which BMIT will be announcing over the next 12 months in relation to the expansion of its data centre, cloud and internet connectivity capabilities.
During an on-site presentation, BMIT CEO Christian Sammut explained that the new data centre will have a capacity of 146 racks, all installed and immediately available, and therefore enabling a quick turnaround to customers across a wide range of industries including online gaming, financial institutions, IT companies as well as SMEs. It is designed and will be operated to standards ensuring high availability of mission-critical data and applications in a secure environment for customers’ servers and data.
BMIT Limited is Malta’s leading data centre, operating multiple data centres and offering a wide range of services, including co-location, cloud services, hosting and managed services. Its customer base consists of a mix of corporates and SMEs spread all over Europe and operating mainly in the online gaming, retail and financial services sectors.
The data centre will be built by a team of Maltese and international companies, led by one of the leading provider of critical infrastructure for data centres, communication networks, healthcare, and industrial facilities worldwide. Mr Sammut said the new data centre is expected to be fully operational by October. The company will not only be able to offer its services to new Smart City clients but also to other local and foreign companies. BMIT, he said, will be announcing foreign investments in the future as it plans to expand its services to countries like Italy and Germany.
Economy Minister Chris Cardona praised the bold step taken by the company and said this was not only good news for the firm but also for the Maltese economy in general. Investments such as this reflected the positive economic sentiment in Malta.
Dr Cardona said several local companies invested and expanded in 2014. 73 companies had their projects approved by Malta Enterprise. The prospects for the coming three years are also positive – local and foreign companies are expected to invest up to €143 million and create upwards of 2,500 jobs.
The success in the ICT sector is owed to companies like BMIT, Dr Cardona said. The services offered by it and other similar companies provide services that are crucial for local companies and foreign ones that plan to invest in Malta. The services offered by BMIT, including data storage, back-up services, hosting and co-location are indispensable for sectors like gaming, the creative industry and financial services. Investments such as this one give opportunity to the government to encourage more foreign direct investment to Malta.
Dr Cardona noted that BMIT last year invested a million euro on its infrastructure. “This is a government that celebrates the success of the private sector.” He also lauded the fact that the company had chosen Smart City, adding that several companies had shown interest in the area over the past two years.
Smart City Malta CEO Anthony Tabone said BMIT and Smart City share similar philosophies – strengthening the economy, investing in modern technology and the creation of jobs. Smart City is able to attract companies like BMIT because of its location and high quality ICT infrastructure, he said.