Page 6 - EngineerIT August-September 2025

COVER STORY

Designing for disruption:

building redundancy into South Africa's

digital infrastructure

n May 2025, a brief yet wide- almost 79%, it significantly impacted Are we too dependent on too
reaching internet outage in South thousands of businesses and millions few pathways?
IAfrica, caused by a single point of of users. The ripple effect lasted well Internet exchange points (IXPs)
failure in a core internet exchange, beyond, disrupting online classes, form the backbone of regional
revealed just how exposed even interrupting meetings, and even internet performance. They act as
mature digital ecosystems can be. online streaming of the country’s central hubs where networks meet
national budget speech. and exchange traffic efficiently.
The interruption only lasted a few A key takeaway from this and
minutes, but with South Africa’s This event served as a timely other similar instances is that
internet penetration rate standing at reminder that in digital economies, even the most robust and resilient
redundancy – including backup systems are vulnerable to failure
network connectivity, power supply, for various reasons. All of these
or data storage – is no longer a can be mitigated if the appropriate
technical afterthought but a strategic backups are in place.
imperative that ensures operations
are seamless and services continue This wasn’t a failure of design or
uninterrupted. engineering. Instead, it served as a
reminder of the risks associated with
relying on a single IXP to carry the
By Adil El Youssefi, Chief Executive Officer, Africa Data Centres bulk of national traffic.

6 | EngineerIT August/September 2025