CENTRES Demands of the DIGITAL AGE

ACCORDING TO THE World Bank, with Africa’s share of the world’s population projected to become the largest by 2100, it is critical for the continent to increase the uptake of digital technologies to help drive employment growth each year and enable economic transformation.

As the continent continues to move steadily into the digital sphere, businesses will invariably generate more data from their operations which can be turned into a valuable asset to help provide actionable information for decision making. “To be or not to be datacentric is no longer debatable, it’s just a question of when,” remarked Gert Duvenhage, COO of Paratus Group, a pan-African telecommunications operator.

However, with this phenomenon comes a greater reliance on digital infrastructure and computer which, according to Duvenhage, can be challenging to stay ahead of. “The reality is that there is a major downside when you start adding up the associated costs and risks. Operational and maintenance costs, back-up, protection, security against cyber breaches, network connectivity, etc. are all issues that need proper consideration.

“So, if you’re using your office premises to house your computer equipment, you need air conditioning to keep the equipment cool, you need to safeguard the equipment against theft, fire, or any kind of damage, you need to maintain the equipment and you need to protect what it houses so that your data and your business’ information is safe.”

The data centre deluge

The demands of the digital age are accelerating the seemingly unstoppable rise of data centres on the continent; facilities that protect computer equipment and ensure that data and business information is safeguarded.

Recently, for example, Paratus Angola has announced that its data centres in Luanda have been awarded ISO 9001, ISO 27001, and PCIDSS certifications; news that came soon after the Paratus facility in Lusaka, Zambia, received the same international approvals.

In Ghana, MDXi Appolonia, a subsidiary of MainOne (an Equinix company in Ghana) has received its Tier III Constructed Facility certification (TCCF) from the Uptime Institute.

The facility features private data centre suites, enterprise-grade 24×7 multi-level security and video surveillance, precision cooling, safety and fire suppression systems with multiple redundancies built into the power, cooling and security infrastructure. It has maintained 100% uptime since launch, and is managed by highly trained engineers operating from an operations centre matching international standards.

Also recognising the African opportunity, Agility Logistics Parks, a leading developer of industrial and logistics real estate, has launched tailored, master-planned data centre campus sites in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Ghana, with more to come. The sites are being readied at ultra-modern ALP warehousing complexes in fast-growing markets and mega-cities that are looking to add hyperscale data centre capacity and resolve data latency, security and compliance challenges to speed up their growth and improve competitiveness.

Of course, customers making use of these facilities need peace-of-mind that their equipment and data is safe and secure. To shed light on how this is achieved, Paratus shared the steps it takes to ensure customers can rest easy.

The company explained that at its facility in Lusaka, the building has verified access so that only customers that are known and registered are able to access and a reception check-in that requires identification to be admitted. This aspect is managed stringently with regular checks and the company has utilised fingerprinting technology for all tenants as well.

Around the entire facility there is fencing and gates, and Paratus employs 24/7 onsite security personnel who are aided by CCTV monitoring both inside and outside. Once inside, there is physical security for each customer server and equipment in the form of locked caged cabinets on the data centre floor, each with unique keys.

On the virtual side, next-gen firewalls protect all incoming and outgoing traffic to every part of the network. This platform is fully resilient, as it is built with many servers acting as one. This is called vSAN, which stands for Virtual Storage Area Network, and, because a vSAN has many servers, this makes the platform highly tolerant to any issues which may arise.

In addition to these security measures, the company combats data loss through its guaranteed power availability and resilience –it has two dedicated generators and separate utilities UPS to ensure electrical autonomy; highly-efficient and resilient cooling systems with constant positive pressure throughout the facility; state-of-the-art fire detection and suppression with environmentally safe, low- pressure suppression gas Novec; disaster recovery and conference facilities; dedicated onsite NOC operators and technicians to ensure consistent monitoring; and more.

Duvenhage concluded, “If you are not currently using a data centre or if you don’t think you need one soon, then, to put it bluntly, your business could be at risk. You need to be able to cope with the demands that the digital age will impose upon your business because we have already entered the digital age. In essence, data centres are the key to unlocking more of your business potential.”

IN RECENT DEVELOPMENTS, Vodacom

Mozambique has launched commercial 5G services in the country's capital city of Maputo, according to recent press reports, and plans to extend its 5G service to other parts of the country in the coming years, connecting up to 75% of the population by 2025.“5G technology will significantly improve the quality of the telecommunications service provided in the country, particularly in the materialisation of the Internet of things (IoT) and ‘smart everything’ (smart cities, smart agriculture, smart ports, etc.), as it is the technology that better supports these cases," said Mateus Magala, Minister of Transport and Communications.

Meanwhile in Kenya, Safaricom became the first service provider in the country to launch 5G in October 2022. Safaricom has since increased its 5G coverage to 28 towns across 21 counties, empowering its customers in 5G areas to enjoy superfast internet connectivity