TECHNOLOGY
rom Cairo to Cape Town , the hyperscale cloud industry across the African continent is gearing up for a boom of epic proportions .
Will King , EMEA Managing Director at data centre industry analytics firm DC Byte , demonstrates this trend in microcosm . “ Between 2013-2018 , the Nairobi data centre market grew by just under 1.5 MW in aggregate ( live , under construction and secured power ) supply ,” he explains . “ In 2019 , over 23 MW of power were added to that market .”
Throughout Africa - especially key markets south of the Sahara , like Nairobi in Kenya , Lagos in Nigeria , and Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa - there ’ s a rising tide of demand for digital services , driven by cloud adoption , widespread fintech investment , and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic .
“ There has been a fundamental shift in the connectivity landscape across the continent in the last 10 years , with significant investments continuing to be made in subsea , terrestrial and metro fibre , as well as into mobile networks ,” explains Robert Mullins , CEO of the Raxio Group , a data centre operator that ’ s been building and managing colocation sites throughout central Africa for over a decade , and currently focuses on high growth but underserved markets like Uganda , Ethiopia , DRC and Mozambique , and has plans to further expand into the Ivory Coast over the next 12 months .
Mullins explains that , as connectivity infrastructure has passed a tipping point , the increased support for digital services has “ allowed digital transformation to begin , while also driving down the cost of connectivity .”
As a result , this has “ increased the adoption of digital services by Africa ’ s residents , including cloud , and has allowed data to be transported more efficiently and effectively within , and out of , the continent .” However , Mullins notes that , while connectivity has leapt forward , the data centre industry has lagged behind . “ The ability to store , transfer and process the data locally , is limited by the lack of proper data centre infrastructure . In this area , investment
134 February 2022