Digital transformation in Africa

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DIGITAL

transformation in AFRICA

As in the rest of the world, Africa is shifting to the cloud, led by the roll-out of data centre facilities to support today’s digitally driven operating environment. However, the investment required to achieve a sustainable transition requires private and public sector participation to create an enabling environment.

“Data centres require the highest level of precision when it comes to their design. Aspects such as fire protection, building design, power and cooling systems, security, facility management systems, and sustainability are all critical in this regard,” says Peter Hodgkinson, managing director of WSP Building Services, Africa.

Hodgkinson says energy security is a crucial consideration. “Given the purpose of a data centre, being able to offer nearly 100% uptime is not only a key market differentiator, but increasingly a non-negotiable in this digital age. However, most markets across Africa experience some level of unstable power supply at best. This is also compounded by pressure to rethink resource reliance in line with sustainability practices. And the data centre environment is no different,” he explains.

Mastering energy demand

Typically, data centres are power hungry. However, to meet uptime conditions and manage customer expectations, power management solutions – including resilient and backup power infrastructure, or self-powering solutions to offset reliance on grid power – are an essential business requirement.

Additionally, with the global shift towards net zero, more emphasis is being placed on architects and consulting engineers to continue to come up with alternative and operationally cost-efficient designs. These are aimed at reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions, and improving the overall operational efficiencies of new data centre projects.

“A data centre that is built around these core principles is not only modern in today’s context, but future-proof by design. And, like smart property developers, data centre owners have begun to realise that building for sustainability not only makes good operational business sense, but it also aligns with responsible corporate citizenship and meeting environmental, social and governance practices,” he adds.

“These are significant value-adds to the end-user, which also contributes to the marketability of the data centre – what benefits the end-user also benefits the data centre owner,” concludes Hodgkinson.