Last week, hyperscale data centre implementer iXAfrica unveiled the first phase of what it terms a ‘state-of-the-art’ facility within Kenya’s capital, and with it pronounced a promise for enhanced capacity in data storage services as well as up scaled safety.
Dubbed NBOX1, the 4.5 megawatt (MW)-capacity data centre launched on Wednesday last week is part of a larger 22.5MW data centre campus along Mombasa Road, touted to be the largest project of its kind in the greater East African region with the capacity to serve a population of up to 300 million users.
A data centre is a large group of networked computer servers typically used by organisations for remote storage, processing or distribution of large amounts of data.
The primary measure of capacity in data centres is electricity consumption with the smallest unit being kilowatts (KW).
Based on a network of computing and storage resources that enable the delivery of shared applications and data, a data centre can utilise considerable aggregates of power.
Across Africa, the continent’s entire installed data centres’ capacity totals to 250MW, accounting for only one percent of the global capacity.
At 4.5MW of IT power therefore, NBOX1 represents around 1.8 percent of the continental aggregate capacity, which would then rise to nine percent on completion of all phases of iXAfrica’s Nairobi project.
During the launch last week, the firm announced that the first phase comprises 780 server racks, meaning it can support thousands of servers and intensive computing workloads.
The facility is also carrier-neutral, meaning it isn’t affiliated to a single telecom provider but instead offers connectivity through multiple networks for maximum redundancy and reach. Users can, thus, choose from a variety of network service providers to connect to, offering better flexibility of options.
“The 4.5MW, 780 racks hyperscale, carrier-neutral, and AI-ready facility named NBOX1, expands access to cloud services, secure data storage, and reliable connectivity for businesses, tech providers, and government operations,” wrote iXAfrica in a statement.
“Built to meet growing data and computing demands, the centre offers seamless connectivity through multiple network providers and is optimised for AI-driven workloads.”
The launch comes at a time Kenya is racing to cement its position as a regional digital hub, buoyed by rapid tech advancements and positioning of the country as a haven to multiple global tech giants.
Being carrier-neutral, the NBOX1 will allow both local and international telecom operators to connect and deliver their services seamlessly, in addition to creating opportunities for global cloud providers and content delivery networks to establish a local presence in the country.
Further, being AI-ready comes in handy for the regional startups and researchers working on AI and machine learning in that they will now be able to leverage local infrastructure in their model developments.
Upon completion, the new data centre campus is expected to cater for the increasing demand for cloud computing services, digital transformation and edge computing applications across the region.
For the average user, the data center brings a general connectivity boost as the Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP) has already established a new peering hub at the NBOX1 facility, meaning local internet traffic can now be exchanged more efficiently between networks.
A Kenya Data Centre Market Outlook report released by research and advisory firm Ken Research two years ago revealed that a growing demand from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) coupled with heightened internet penetration has placed the country’s data centre market on a growth trajectory.
According to the report, the market is expected to generate over $100 million (Sh12.9 billion at current exchange rates) by the end of 2027, chiefly driven by a fastened pace of e-commerce growth in the country.
The report further noted that an improvement in network connectivity, government support and targeted growth in the adoption of Big Data and the Internet f Things (IoT) are some of the factors that could be tapped to speed up the growth.
“Nairobi and Mombasa are the booming data centre markets which continue to attract heavy investment as internet and mobile data usage continue to grow,” noted the report.
Among other notable players in the local data centres market include Africa Data Centres (ADC), Pan African IX Data Centres Kenya Limited (PAIX) and icolo.io.
