Open Access Data Centres: a vision to bring Africa to the world
With the largest-ever investment in digital infrastructure, the company is revolutionizing
connectivity in the continent
Part of the WIOCC group, which provides wholesale connectivity solutions all over Africa, Open Access Data Centres is the group’s bid to change the face of Africa’s digital infrastructure. With a 500 million investment over the coming five years, OADC is developing carrier-neutral data centres and vibrant ecosystems of interconnection, while providing open access hyperscale connectivity. “This is just the start of the pan-African vision we are working towards”, says company CEO Dr. Ayotunde Coker, “and we are quickly being recognized as a prominent African brand”
With core centres already running in Nigeria, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, they are indeed on their way to connecting Africa to itself and to the world. Beyond these six hyperscale core date centres, which are open-access, tier-111 facilities, the company has 30 edge data centres, that is with core-to-edge architecture, that support improved application performance. “The Lagos centre is designed to be the most client-centric data centre in Africa”, adds Dr. Coker.
First in the pan-Africa network to be certified by the Uptime Institute, the Lagos centre is designed to cater for telcos, ISPs, cloud operators, content providers, internet exchanges and major enterprises seeking to expand their business in Africa. Connected directly to the Equiano sub-sea cable, which connects South Africa to Portugal by way of Nigeria, the centre has already made significant impact on the market in terms of its rapid speed and flexible client solutions. “We’re offering a fresh, client-centred approach to data centres in West Africa”, adds Dr. Coker, “providing innovative facilities and support that enable businesses to expand into new markets with greater flexibility and scalability”.
In simple terms, the company’s goal is to make the transfer of information from and into Africa happen on a scale proportional to a continent considered the next significant growth area in the world, with a consumer market of great potential and already producing vast amounts of information for large markets at a global level. The key to this transformation is a combination of connectivity and data centre infrastructure able to bring information closer to points of consumption, which raises economic activity. “With 10% broadband penetration you can add 2.5 points to your GDP”, explains Prof. Coker, “so our approach is extremely transformative for economic development”.
The key to their success is their unique coreto-edge architecture, unifying local and core data centres fully connected into Africa’s network so that content can be made available closer to where it is generated or consumed, and ever-greater volumes of data can be processed. “We are the partner of choice for companies tapping into this market, and together we are connecting Africa to the world”, says Dr. Coker with a smile.
