Page 7 - EngineerIT August-September 2025

COVER STORY

This centralisation introduces risk: At Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, redundancy is built
when that hub falters, the knock-on into our infrastructure and our services. Multiple data centre sites enable seamless
effects can compromise an entire workload transfer across geographic locations. Electricity supply issues are
nation’s connectivity. addressed with solutions such as various power feeds, on-site backup generation,
and battery support. Network resilience is ensured through connections to various
The reality is that many South terrestrial and subsea cable systems, as well as cloud and carrier diversity, which
African internet service providers provide clients with access to a variety of service providers and interconnection
(ISPs), enterprises, and digital points. Africa Data Centres’ customers have access to all of South Africa’s IXPs,
platforms are heavily reliant on a including Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX), Cape Town Internet Exchange
single IXP for their traffic flows. While (CINX), and NAPAfrica, ensuring that there are always fallback routes and
this offers simplicity and perception alternative pathways in the event of an incident.
of cost benefits, it also introduces
risk, particularly when redundancy Prioritise resilience over centralisation
paths aren’t well-defined or As South Africa advances on its digital transformation journey, the demands on our
contingency scenarios aren’t internet infrastructure will continue to grow. From AI-powered solutions and real-
robustly tested. This is why multi- time analytics to remote healthcare, digital education, and content streaming, we
path connectivity and diversified are more dependent on stable, high-performance connectivity than ever before.
peering strategies should be an
integral part of every enterprise’s While the most recent incident was resolved swiftly and transparently, South Africa
risk management playbook. was soon back online. However, it should prompt every CIO, network architect, and
digital strategist to reflect on their redundancy strategy. Are connections diverse
Building redundancy into the enough? Is the business dependent on a single peering point? Can systems
DNA of the infrastructure withstand a few minutes of disruption without missing a beat, or are they exposed
This isn’t just about uptime. It’s to a single point of failure?
about designing infrastructure
that enables systems to perform The difference between disruption and resilience lies in foresight, powered by
acceptably even when part of the infrastructure that prioritises resilience over centralisation. The goal isn’t just
network experiences stress. It’s also avoiding the next outage. It’s about incorporating redundancy into every stage of
about allowing ISPs, cloud providers, the digital transformation journey.
fintech platforms, and enterprises
to route traffic dynamically, with the Contact Africa Data Centres today.
intelligence to adapt to congestion 011 585-0000
or failure. www.africadatacentres.com

7 | EngineerIT August/September 2025
7 | EngineerIT August/September 2025