The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is planning to fund the development of a small disaster recovery data center in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The agency also plans to fund the IT services and upgrade of an existing data center, both of which will be used by state-owned utility Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS). The potential contract will also see the development of five utility load centers in Kabul, Kandahar, Balkh, Herat and Nangarhar provinces.
In a Request for Information posting on the federal procurement website, USAID states: “DABS HQ Data Center houses the existing IT infrastructure and is the current repository of all data collected by DABS. Currently the data gathered by DABS is not backed up. In case of any interruptions, the business operations of DABS will be adversely affected.
“To mitigate disruption of business operations, DABS plans to establish a Disaster Recovery Data Center at the Tarakhil Power Plant.”
The existing data center is in Chaman Hazouri Kabul, and is used to host DABS’s ‘mPower’ software application suite that automates metering, billing, revenue collection, customer care, mobile workforce, energy auditing, asset registration, and asset management.
The disaster recovery site is set to be located at the power plant, a huge and controversial diesel system known by many as “The White Elephant of Kabul.”
USAID spent $335 million on the 105MW power plant, constructed by the Black & Veatch engineering firm under a contract awarded in 2007. The project faced cost overruns, delays, and operational issues, before being handed over to DABS in 2010.
