Page 6 - EngineerIT June July Issue 2026

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When AI infrastructure

is tested by peak

demand

ew moments test digital infrastructure like peak trading periods. Black
Friday, festive shopping seasons, flash sales, and major promotional events
Fgenerate massive spikes in online activity within minutes. For retailers and
digital platforms, these are some of the most commercially significant days of
the year. What bargain-hunting consumers don’t see is the behind-the-scenes
AI and infrastructure that’s responsible for keeping these experiences running
smoothly – or not.

At Africa Data Centres, we regularly see how moments of extreme demand test
the limits of the digital infrastructure supporting modern retail platforms and
AI-driven services.

Every step of the digital shopping experience is carefully curated: search engines
push relevant products, recommendation systems personalise offers in real
time, pricing algorithms adjust dynamically, fraud detection models screen
transactions instantly, and AI-powered customer service tools handle thousands
of queries simultaneously.

But the quest to improve customer experience and drive revenue
introduces a new infrastructure challenge. When millions of users
arrive at once, AI workloads spike, placing immense pressure on
the infrastructure supporting them. Without the right foundation,
even the most sophisticated digital platforms can struggle to
cope. The same goes for the infrastructure that houses them. Research from the International
Energy Agency suggests that AI-driven
The infrastructure stress of peak demand data centre workloads are already
Peak demand creates a very different operational contributing to rapid increases in
environment compared with normal daily power consumption globally, with
workloads. During major retail events, demand expected to grow sharply as
e-commerce platforms frequently report traffic AI adoption accelerates.
spikes of three to five times normal levels. Data
from Capitec, for instance, shows that South For infrastructure operators, this
Africa’s Black Friday weekend alone generated translates into higher power needs,
55 million transactions valued at R25.3 billion. greater heat output, and dramatically
And that's just one institution. increased data movement across
networks during peak periods. If
Each additional customer interaction these are lacking, performance
triggers several AI processes in the begins to degrade: latency increases,
background, which, when multiplied across applications slow down, or services
millions of interactions, generate significant become unavailable. For businesses,
compute demand. that can translate directly into millions
in lost revenue, while slow or unreliable
platforms during major promotions
By Adil El Youssefi, Global Head Colocation can quickly erode trust and drive
at Africa Data Centres shoppers elsewhere.

6 | EngineerIT June/July 2026