Page 11 - EngineerIT May 2022

ICT DATACENTRES

communities they serve. Job creation is
something we are passionate about, and
the equation is a simple one: digitisation
boosts economies, and successful
digitisation requires data centres. “

Sustainable, pan-African, neutral,
interconnected
“We are Africa’s largest network of data
centres – and we are growing perpetually.
All of our facilities across the continent
will remain interconnected, allowing our
tenants to take advantage of our vast
footprint. Furthermore, we guarantee
carrier-neutrality – meaning our tenants
benefit from competition, redundancy
and reliability. We had a good start with
the support of our sister company Liquid
Telecom Technologies which has the most
diverse interconnect network on the
continent but other carriers will be added
as they develop their African network.
A good example is the new subsea cable
landing in Togo. We are committed to
carrier neutrality and will expand that as
fast as new carriers enter Africa.”
Perhaps most important is our
commitment to sustainable, clean builds.
We invest heavily in innovative grey-water
systems, waste disposal and renewable
energy sources, ensuring our carbon
footprint is drastically reduced, our
reliability is uncontested and while building
economies, we’re aiding the environment”
In many African countries the supply
of power is constraints, we see it here which is contributing to Africa’s energy security and efficiency harnessing the power
in South Africa. Data centres are power of the sun to make a difference in Africa by ensuring that there is energy to drive the
guzzlers which means more diesel continent’s digital economy.
generators, adding more pollution, not Planning for a development in the Midrand area we are looking at running the next new
to even consider the cost of fuel. I asked data centre on solar power generation with the mains supply as a back up. As far as the cost
Durvasula how this will impact ADD’s of diesel is concerned, I believe that the price will settle down as the Europeans bring other
expansion. resource on line.
“Yes, it is a concern but if we analyse I am very optimistic about our future. The African population is a young population. I
the development over the past decade, we often refer to them as the restless youth of Africa who want to be connected, make full use
will see that the cost of the construction of their smartphone devices and add more and more devices to enhance their digital world.
of power generation plants have halved I want us to be that company that make it possible.” n
and that we will see more development
of infrastructure. In addition, the power
Tesh Durvasula joined Africa Data Centres as CEO in February 2022. He will be
efficiency of data centres has improved
responsible for driving growth, innovation, and strategy of Cassava Technologies Data
where we are close to a PUE of 1. In
Centres to meet Africa’s demand for data and digital infrastructure.
our group we also have a renewable
Prior to joining Africa Data Centres he served in a variety of executive roles at
power company and are looking at
CyrusOne culminating in his appointment as CEO of the company. Before that he served
increasing deployment of renewable
as president of Europe operations for CyrusOne overseeing their expansion in England,
power. Distributed Power Technologies
Ireland, France and Germany. he played a major role in growing CONE into one of the
is Cassava Technologies’ solar energy
largest publicly traded (Real Estate Investment Trust) REIT’s in the US.
development and management offering
EngineerIT | May 2022 | 9