Sponsored: Co-Locating with a High Quality Data Centre Provider
In today’s world, if your data centre is down, your business is down.
01 July 2024
In today’s world, if your data centre is down, your business is down. For this reason, it’s essential to make the right decisions when adopting co-location and the cloud. One of the decisions businesses must make is whether to build their own data centre, or co-locate with the right quality third-party provider. Dr Ayotunde Coker, CEO of Open Access Data Centres, a WIOCC Group Company, emphasises that there are high quality choices available for organisations that choose to co-locate, and that these are usually a better business option for many reasons.
“Building your own data centre can be a costly exercise, especially when doing so is not your core area of expertise,” he explains. “It requires specialised skills in many different aspects in order to meet the right requirements, including the people, the supply chain, reliable infrastructure and connectivity, and the power to run it.” Enterprise information security is a further challenge, especially in today’s multi-platform environment. “Will you be able to create a solid security architecture, including everything you require, that is secured from end to end, and also incorporates employee training?
If you don’t have the core competencies to run a data centre effectively, it will significantly harm your business,” Coker says. “Ultimately, the capital saved could be better spent in the front end of your business, giving you the edge in today’s competitive market. Choosing to co-locate with a Tier III certified provider, with all of the international standard certifications in place, is a better choice.”
Reliable Connectivity
Open Access Data Centres (OADC) brings together a wide range of managed service providers who offer a package of services to clients. The aim is to deliver simplification, high quality service and reliability in cloud and connectivity services, allowing business decision makers to focus on what matters to their business. Connectivity is a critical part of co-location. If done correctly, it means benefiting from a vibrant ecosystem of carriers, providing reliable connectivity, as well as unprecedented levels of resilience that protect business operations. “An example of Open Access Data Centres’ resilience was when the recent cable cuts occurred off the west coast of Africa. We were the anchor backbone of restoration to the connectivity ecosystem,” Coker explains. “With our strong relationships and combination of open access networks, we were able to rapidly create all the necessary cross-connect, enabling our clients to be up and running again within just 48 hours. WIOCC as an open access network provider, offers connectivity with many other data centre providers, ensuring regional and ultimately global resiliency.”
Utilising WIOCC’s open-access connectivity throughout the African region, both terrestrial and subsea, enables OADC to offer a particularly compelling value proposition to the marketplace. “We can interconnect our clients with a wide range of channel partners and managed services providers. We are Tier-III Uptime certified, with international standard security certification, business continuity certification, and a focus on sustainability as a core competence.
Our sustainability strategy is comprehensive; working in this way is embedded into our DNA,” Coker says. “When it comes to a client’s Scope 1 and 2 reporting requirements, given our framework, we plug straight in and align with the client’s requirements. With open-access colocation, vibrant interconnectivity, a converged infrastructure and a strong sustainability strategy, we take away the worry for our clients.”
African cloud
Pan-African clients can benefit from Open Access Data Centres’ presence on the continent. “We have a wide network of interconnectivity. Our wide range of network partners allows us to offer a pan-African solution with a good fabric of connectivity both regionally and in-country,” Coker says. “With the African continental free trade area being implemented, reliable continental interconnectivity is even more important.”
As well as the bigger core data centres, OADC has 30 edge data centres across South Africa, with connectivity into the WIOCC national long -distance network. “This allows us to take content to the edge. It optimises the end point for clients who don’t want to go all the way to a major city to have access to a colocation partner. It enables businesses, drives content, and we partner with other connectivity providers to ensure that customer value propositions are easily taken to the edge without clients having to find the capital to build core infrastructure themselves,” Coker says.
Over the next few years, Coker predicts a significant rise in the uptake of local cloud in Africa. One of the contributing factors is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Capacity substitution from Europe to Africa will drive demand across the continent. With AI consuming more capacity, African cloud data held elsewhere will need to be relocated back to Africa. The back end of AI is not latency sensitive, and can be delivered wherever the connection and facilities can support it. AI can be driven at the core processing level in Africa, and in the next 12 to 18 months there will be a spike in demand for capacity, and growth in this area.
“The digital world is changing and evolving at a rapid rate, and for us at OADC it is a balancing act to track and predict these changes, make sure that our designs will be optimal for future demand, and that our end points will suit what the market will need,” Coker emphasises.
Engaging with a client base is more than just a matter of engineering. Coker and his team have a broad range of corporate experience, and this enables them to work in an empathetic way to understand each client’s front end issues, and optimise their infrastructure in the best way. “This is one of the benefits of colocation. Whether you are a large enterprise or a SME, by using our expertise, your business can pivot and innovate at speed, without worrying about power or sustainability, engineering or ecosystems. We handle that side and it all happens seamlessly,” Coker explains.