Page 7 - EngineerIT June 2022

COVER STORY

promoting data sovereignty on the scalability, and ease of use. Concurrently, there is a worldwide move towards hosting
continent. Currently, it is estimated data where it is eventually consumed, not only in a move to lower latency, and with
that Africa hosts fewer than 1% of the it the costs associated with data travelling for long distances, but also to protect data
globe’s co-location data centres, with under increasingly stringent data residency and sovereignty laws. Africa is also starting
South Africa boasting the lion’s share to level up with its international counterparts. Several of its economies are booming,
of the continent’s capacity. Colocation its ICT infrastructure is improving, and its labour costs, which are relatively inexpensive,
facilities, such as Africa Data Centres, are making the continent an attractive proposition for outside investment as well as
rent space, power and cooling to outsourcing.
enterprise and hyperscale clients, and However, digital connectivity and data centres are the foundation for cloud
provide interconnection, which allows technologies, and are therefore critical for strengthening the digital economy. We
organisations to scale with minimum understand that promoting a knowledge-based economy by enabling Africa to harness
complexity and at greatly reduced cost. the incredible power of ICTs, will increase the competitiveness and financial health of
An increasing number of businesses in the continent. Building more data centres in Africa will help realise productivity gains
Africa are making use of data centres to across a wide variety of industries, including education, healthcare, financial services,
access public cloud-based services from agriculture, retail and government. The power of ICTs when it comes to transforming
hyperscale giants such as Amazon Web societies is well understood, particularly in less developed regions, as ICTs are known
Services, Microsoft Azure, Google and to promote growth and prosperity, and bring greater inclusion, social cohesion and
others. sustainability.
I believe we can expect to see
a considerable wave of data centre Breaking down barriers
investments across Africa, with Let’s look at some of the ways digitisation can break down traditional barriers for Africa.
economic leaders such as South Firstly, it promotes better trade and business processes which results in lowered costs
Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria at the and economies of scale. Data costs and search costs will drop, co-ordinating logistics
vanguard. These areas will act as hubs for delivery channels is enhanced, regulatory inefficiencies are removed, and imports
to service other regions in the area, and and exports can run more smoothly. In general, businesses can become more agile and
already we are noticing big tech giants resilient to changing market conditions as well as disasters.
in the US eye Africa for investment. Moreover, digitisation promotes the quicker and easier flow of information, enabling
However, Africa Data Centres is leading African businesses to participate more effectively in the global supply chain. Digital
this charge, with our announcement platforms have proved their worth time and time again, when it comes to connecting
in September last year that we are buyers and sellers across a wide range of jurisdictions. It also removes onerous and
planning to build several data centers time-consuming processes all along the value chain. Sharing of information digitally
across a range African countries over enables a better and more thorough market intelligence and deeper knowledge of an
the next two years. Our aim is to organisation’s customers, growing access to more trade opportunities. Again, more
invest $500 million in this expansion, knowledge and more information means a greater ability to participate in global value
which is the greatest in Africa to date, chains.
and will double our already extensive Another sector that should never be discounted is the small to medium-sized
footprint on the continent. We have enterprise sector, which makes up the majority of Africa’s businesses. These entities are
already begun to acquire land in several less likely to have capacity when it comes to financing options, as well as the digital skills
countries and plan to roll-out very necessary to adapt their business operations to compete in today’s regional and global
quickly to meet the burgeoning needs markets. Digital technologies can boost their access to these markets, by lowering the
of existing customers, as well as new barriers to business expansion while driving the development of more efficient services
ones. for Africa’s consumers. Furthermore, digitalisation helps to gain access to critical credit
facilities, crowdfunding, and other less demanding funding and payment options for
The accelerated adoption of cloud smaller companies to grow their capacity, and enable them to extend their reach to
When it comes to the demand which serve a larger base of customers.
is driving our investment, the ongoing
and accelerated adoption of cloud Realising digital ambitions
technologies means that an increasing We have also witnessed a soaring demand from hyperscalers, key cloud operators as
number of organisations, especially ones well as multi-national enterprises that already use our facilities, and are showing a keen
involved in financial services, healthcare interest in being a part of bringing digitalisation at scale Africa, to help the continent
and manufacturing, are starting to reach its digital ambitions. In ending, I’d like to say that data centres are at the core of
move more data and processes off- ICT economic growth and are key to promoting rich and self-sufficient ICT ecosystems
premise, and into hosted data centres. in Africa. At Africa Data Centres, we are proud to be leading the data centre charge in
This is due mainly to the extremely Africa, and helping every region in which we operate to create job opportunities across
compelling benefits that cloud offers, a range of industries, and uplift the communities in which we work, and ultimately, help
such as its pay-as-you-use model, easy Africa realise its digital goals. n

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