Sponsored: Supporting African businesses online in an evolving landscape
Africa Data Centres have new datacentres planned for East Africa, West Africa and North Africa, all driven by increased demand.
01 July 2024
With corporate transitioning to cloud, companies moving their servers off-premise, and the increased focus on AI, datacentre usage across Africa is increasing fast.
“Africa Data Centres is seeing encouraging trends on our continent, with strong indicators of future demand for Africa-based datacentres that are sustainably run, and driven by clean energy,” says Finhai Munzara, interim CEO of Africa Data Centres. “An example of this is the announcement of the new Microsoft-G42 Olkaria datacentre campus in Kenya, powered by geothermal energy, and scheduled to break ground later this year.”
Africa Data Centres have new datacentres planned for East Africa, West Africa and North Africa, all driven by increased demand. The processing power and latency required by AI has meant that many more graphic processing unit servers are being added to datacentres globally. “From a datacentre perspective, this means we need to supply increasing levels of capacity and power. Most of all, we need to do so sustainably,” adds Munzara.
“Africa Data Centres has a roadmap in place to reach net zero. Being energy efficient is no longer a nice-to-have, but a critical requirement. We are driving down our power usage, and focusing on containment, which means that our cooling technology can be directed more efficiently and exactly where it needs to go,” he says.
Cooling management systems are being incorporated into the datacentres, assisted by AI, which allows for optimal temperature efficiency, through precise direction and application of the cooling fans.
“Efficient connection is essential for a datacentre, and we spend a lot of time developing our internal ecosystems, making sure that the right internet on-ramps are in place so that customers can connect directly to the cloud without experiencing latency. Being a carrier-neutral provider is core to us. We have more than 150 connectivity partners that allow our customers to connect via their preferred partners,” Munzara says.
Cross-connecting within the datacentres, by providing physical connections between equipment and various network providers, is becoming very useful, especially in terms of business redundancy and continuity. It optimises security and reliability, while also minimising latency, and it’s especially important for those organisations that handle large amounts of data.
Ahead of the curve
“As we analyse the increasing demand, and the technological developments globally, one of our most exciting projects is expanding our datacentre in Cape Town to deliver added capacity – in fact, doubling the capacity,” Munzara says. “We have AI-ready infrastructure, and have rolled out new technology designed to cool higher density racks. With the demand for AI, the power density of our racks is becoming larger and larger. We used to see about 3 to 4 kilowatts usage per rack, but now, it is more like 19 or 20. Having higher density racks with fan wall technology is very important, especially for cloud providers.”
Renewable energy is a key area of focus for Africa Data Centres. It is sourcing renewable energy wherever possible, and for the Cape Town datacentre, it has signed a deal to source 12 megawatts of renewable energy, making sure it is ahead of the curve.
Another area of focus is water usage. “Water is a key element of the cooling process, and we have a closed loop system in place within our datacentres, where water is re-circulated and recycled, and we use no additional water,” says Munzara.
Africa Data Centres is ready to meet the increased demand on the African continent in a sustainable and effective way, enabling its customers to expand their businesses, and facilitate effortless interactions online.