India / Bhārata: TASMAC awards RailTel a $35.9 million contract for an India data center

RailTel, an IT infrastructure provider, has been awarded a $35.9 million contract by TASMAC, a Tamil state-owned beverage corporation. RailTel will provide TASMAC with end-to-end automation and connectivity five years into the contract. This will extend to RailTel providing the project's facilities, including constructing a data center and data recovery center that, together with the Tamil Nadu state data center (TNSDC), can provide two-way disaster recovery. The data center and disaster recovery center specifications were not disclosed.

TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) was established in 1956 and is wholly owned by the Tamil Nadu government. The company acquires foreign liquor and beer inventories produced in India from local manufacturers, distributes the product through depots, and engages in retail sales. TASMAC's IT is currently hosted at the TNSDC, a colocation facility that opened in 2011. TNSDC 1 can accommodate over 150 racks, while TNSDC, the second phase of the state data center, can accommodate up to 138 racks.

RailTel will use IT infrastructure in various locations, including TASMAC's headquarters in Chennai, the office of the senior regional manager, the office of the district manager, 43 depots, and several retail stores throughout the state.

The track and trace for the supplier, depot, and retail vending shop, the human resources management system, and the financial and accounting system are among the systems that TASMAC will reportedly entrust to RailTel.

As anticipated, this will necessitate a substantial amount of digitization, historical data migration, and Internet connectivity installation at various locations, all of which will be managed by RailTel over the next five years. According to a senior government official who spoke with The New India Express, this process should be concluded by the end of the year.