As we embrace the digital economy, demand for data centres will be on the rise, especially in Africa. We have seen a number of players set up their operations in Africa and even Kenya over the last few years. This has been strategic as it aims to meet the demand of businesses and individuals across the continent. We had a conversation with Dan Kwach who is the Managing Director (East Africa) of Africa Data Centres on the state of this sector and what the future holds.
- Can you start by telling us about Africa Data centres, what you do and how long you have been in operation, and who are your main customers?
Africa Data Centres is the continent’s largest network of interconnected, carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre facilities. We are truly pan-African, and bringing international experts to every market in which we operate. We aim to be our customers’ trusted partner for quick and secure data centre services and interconnections across the continent. We are strategically located in every major region, and our facilities are truly world-class, providing a home for the business-critical data of organisations of every size and in every industry. Africa Data Centres is also part of the Cassava Technologies group of companies which is a leading communications solutions provider across 13 countries mostly in Eastern, Southern and South Africa that serves mobile operators, carriers, enterprise, media and content companies and retail customers with high-speed, reliable connectivity, hosting and colocation and digital services. It has built Africa’s largest independent fibre network, with a reach of more than 73,000km.
- What distinguishes Africa Data centres from other players on the market?
We are the leading, pan-African, vendor- and carrier-neutral colocation provider on the continent. In addition, our key team members have decades of experience in this market, and go beyond providing colocation services, to being lifelong, trusted partners with all our clients.
- What are the key benefits that African Data centres can offer a potential customer/partner?
Data residency and sovereignty is becoming key for African businesses. This, coupled with the increasing adoption of cloud services, means more African entities are migrating their data and processes off-premise and into hosted and other third-party data centres. There is a global need to host data closer to where it is ultimately consumed, fueled in part by data protection regulations, including issues of data residency and sovereignty, as well as the need to lower latency to enable better content streaming and other functions, is driving in the region. Africa Data Centres are truly African and are built by Africans, for Africans,
- What is the state of the market (data centers) in Africa? Is the growth as you expected or is it slower than that?
The growth is extremely fast, more than anyone could have predicted. The majority of reports estimate that Africa needs some 700 more data centre facilities with a combined capacity of 1000MW, but I think we are underestimating how much we really need. From the growth that Africa Data Centres is seeing, and the demand we are witnessing, I believe that Africa is going to be the continent where digital infrastructure will continue to soar, in every region. Even 700 new facilities will not be sufficient to meet the continent’s growing demands and bring us to a level playing field with our overseas counterparts in terms of capacity and density. The best way to determine the future is by scrutinising the past, and if we have learned anything, it’s that we have always underestimated growth when it comes to data centre capacity. We underestimated in Europe and Asia, and we are underestimating it in Africa too.
- In your opinion, what is driving the demand for data centers in Africa?
In Africa, business leaders across the board have found themselves under increasing pressure, as they have to manage dramatic, yet often inequitable, competition between their businesses and their competitors in parts of the more developed world. At the same time, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced organisations in every industry and of every size, to rationalise their investments, boost productivity and reduce costs. In a nutshell, they had to do more, with a whole lot less, and do it practically overnight. Building more data centres is the only way Africa can meet its growing needs for the storage and networking power that are so critical to meeting the continent’s digital transformation goals. Africa Data Centres is witnessing a wide range of new businesses begin to host their solutions and their data locally, because by hosting these outside their borders, African countries were giving away a good chunk of their political, economic and digital sovereignty, which was driving higher costs, more latency, and putting them in danger of falling foul of data protection regulations. In addition, the growth of data centres in Africa is being driven by advances in connectivity and data consumption, particularly when it comes to smartphone penetration. In addition, as broadband becomes ubiquitous, download speeds are also getting faster, which also boosts data consumption. Undersea cables have also boosted broadband capacity significantly, which is vital to the success of local data centres. This, coupled with the soaring adoption of cloud services, means more companies are migrating their data and processes into the cloud and into hosted and other third-party data centres.
- Can you share your top 3 markets in Africa at the moment by the percentage of your entire operation? Which markets do you expect to see accelerated growth over the next 5 years?
South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are our top markets, as well as Morocco and Egypt. We can expect more growth in these markets over the next five years.
- Recently, Africa Data centres announced that it has plans to setup a second data centre in Kenya, any timeline as to when this will happen?
We have tremendous expansion plans for Kenya. We are expanding in Nairobi, and have already begun the development of our second data centre which will boast up to 20MW of IT load. Moreover, we are in the process of securing land for a third facility, and altogether this investment of more than $200 million will double the country’s data centre capacity and promote the development of the country as the key digital hub for the rest of East Africa.
- What are your future plans for Africa?
Africa Data Centres recently announced the greatest expansion plans that Africa has ever seen, which will see us building several hyper-scale data centres across the continent, including what we see as the top five data centre markets in Africa, namely South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt. We have set aside a staggering $500m investment to enable us to more than double our already vast footprint on the continent, which will catapult digital transformation in Africa and help the continent realise its digital transformation goals. These plans shine the spotlight on our strong commitment to accelerating digital transformation in the region, and growing our footprint is a key to delivering on our vision of a digitally connected future for Africa and its citizens.
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