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First Arctic commercial data processing center opens in Murmansk

The center will store data from surveillance cameras in the region

MURMANSK, October 27. /TASS/. The first in the Russian Arctic regional commercial data processing center was launched in Murmansk by Rostelecom, a nationwide telecom provider. The center will store data from surveillance cameras in the region, TASS correspondent reported on Wednesday.

"The first Arctic commercial data processing center has been launched in Murmansk - it is the northernmost commercial data processing center in the country," Rostelecom's representative Alexander Loginov said at the opening ceremony. "Presently, the center collects the entire video-analytical system, and the center's capacity may be increased very quickly."

"Within a month, by three or four times," he added. "If equipment on the other floors is upgraded, the capacity may be increased tenfold."

According to him, the center will be used to store data from the Murmansk Region, and, if needed, it may serve other Northern regions until they obtain similar facilities.

The regional government has been using the new data processing center, the Murmansk Region's Governor Andrey Chibis said. "The first client is we, the government, a big video stream; we have been building security systems in Murmansk and other cities in the region. <…> Quite soon, the system will serve the municipal cameras, and the video-security system will develop."

The video surveillance system will help in search for criminals, in response to dangerous situations, as well as in search for missing people, he added. The region's Minister of Digital Development Alexandra Nekipelova added that the cameras, from which video will be stored at the data center, had been installed in schools and intercoms on entrance doors. "They analyze faces. All identifications are stored in the system, and law enforcers are monitoring the process. By end of the year, about 4,000 monitoring devices will be linked to this system," she said.

In October, 2021, the Murmansk Region and Rostelecom agreed on the first data processing center in the Arctic. The center's traffic transmission channels have been reserved at 40 GB, where an optional extension would not require major investments.

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